The Rainbow Writers Season Seven-Episode 10: Demons Among Us
by rainbowwriters
Summary: Officially the tenth story in our Season Seven Series. Re-posting of an old story.


COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Willow, Tara, Xander, Anya, Giles, Dawn, Spike and all other characters who have appeared in the syndicated series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, together with the names, titles and back story are the sole copyright property of Joss Wheldon, Fox and Mutant Enemy. No copyright infringement was intended in the writing of this fan fiction. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the authors. This story cannot be sold or used for profit in any way. Please contact the authors for permission to reproduce this story on any other fan fiction site.

LOVE/ GRAPHIC SEX DISCLAIMER: This story depicts a love relationship between two consenting adult women. If you are under 18 years of age or if this type of story is illegal in the state or country in which you live, please do not read it. If depictions of this nature disturb you, you may wish to read something other than this story. (Please note this may not apply until much further parts but it will be an integral part of the storyline.)

TIMEFRAME: Season Seven done Rainbow Writers Style… we are taking all that has aired up until Grave as gospel and working with what the bad evil Josh has given us… the difference WE LOVE WILLOW AND TARA… so we're going to fix all the horribleness… the theme is still "Back to the Beginning" as hinted at… but with a total focus on fixing what was done to our gorgeous lovely couple.

PAIRING: Willow and Tara… obviously!

BIG GIANT HUGE ANGST/UNHAPPINESS DISCLAIMER: So if you've seen season six… you know… ME sucks… they took us all down a road we never wanted to go… but now we have to get back… so the ride will be bumpy… but we promise this time the light… its daylight and NOT a train!

WORK OF THE RAINBOW WRITERS WARNING! … If you know our stuff you know we can OWN pain and suffering when we want too… stock up: tissues, chocolate, have loved ones near… we're going to get to a happy place but we're not going to gloss over the damage ME has done.

YELLOW CRAYON XANDER WARNING: In the vein of trying to be nice… we've decided its time for Xander to clean up some of his act and take on some responsibility… no he's not turning into super Xander, but maybe a more respectable guy.

 **Demons Among Us**

 **By: The Rainbow Writers**

Morning at the Summers' house was a sedate but frantic affair by definition. This morning had started out starkly different, as everyone slept in, not having to worry about getting Dawn ready and off to school or all the other issues that arose at the early hour with everyone milling around. The atmosphere was quiet, a sweet melody of birdsong filtered in through the partially open kitchen window on the wings of a soft autumn breeze.

It seemed that nothing could break the tranquillity until Dawn's frantic screams shrilly crashed the happy veneer for the second morning in a row.

"Buffy!" She screamed again as she raced back into the house through the open back door and headed up the stairs.

The Slayer was out of her room and onto the landing just in time to collide with her sister, the impact sending Dawn bouncing off the wall and further down the hallway a bit.

"Buffy, Buffy!" Dawn didn't miss a beat as she righted herself, her voice still loud and panicked. "He's gone!"

"What? Who?" Buffy stopped as the words filtered into her barely awake adrenaline filled brain. "Spike?" Her eyes grew wider. "Dawn, don't be crazy he has to be in the garage."

"He's gone!" Dawn moved over and pushed her sister towards the stairs.

"Who's gone?" Willow appeared in her doorway next.

"Apparently Spike has." Buffy scowled at the idea and finally gave in heading towards the stairs. "Willow, Dawn keep everyone in the house till I go pull him out from under the car or from whatever corner he's crawled into out there." She stated clearly as she reached the bottom of the stairs, leaving Dawn and Willow on the top landing. She pulled a short sword out of the umbrella stand by the door.

"What's going on?" Madalene appeared from the basement.

"Spike's gone apparently." Buffy opened the door. "Stay inside." She underlined.

"Okay." Madalene nodded moving around to the window to watch the Slayer as much as possible as the blonde headed for the garage.

The Slayer walked to the outside door taking a quick look around to see nothing was out of place. She did a quick lap of the garden before moving into the garage. It was obvious from first inspection that the vampire wasn't in his usual corner. A quick check under the car and in all the cupboards showed her nothing. She even pulled out the ladder checking up behind some old wood and skis that hung in the rafters.

"Damn." Buffy cursed as she crawled back down the ladder and ran into the house. "TARA!" She called as she stalked in.

Madalene was instantly on her heels, matching her step for step as they went to the second floor to see the blonde witch emerging from her bedroom.

"Buffy, what's wrong?" She looked around briefly.

"I need you outside." Buffy looked at her almost coldly.

"Buffy is something out there?" Madalene questioned moving to take Tara's hand.

"Mads, right now I'm talking to Tara." Buffy warned her away from further questions.

"Can I at least get some clothes on?" Tara rubbed her forehead and glanced down at her silk night dress.

"I'll wait." Buffy moved to the stairs again.

*Spike's not in the garage.* The Spellcaster looked at her cousin trying to explain.

*Oh right.* Tara nodded as she trudged back into her room. A few moments later she was dressed and she walked solemnly out to the garage with Buffy.

"Is the magic seal still here?" The Slayer asked her first question.

"No." Tara admitted after concentrating for a few moments. "He's gone?" She questioned wanting confirmation.

"Like you didn't know that already." Buffy sighed but her words were biting.

"Excuse me?" Tara took a step back.

"Tara, I appreciate the new 'got tough' you but letting an insane vampire go wasn't the greatest move." Buffy shook her head and walked back to the house.

Tara remained in the garage looking shocked and hurt by the accusation.

*What did she say?* Madalene came into the garage slowly looking at her cousin with a frown.

*What did you do?* Tara looked at the Spellcaster seriously.

*I simplified things.* Madalene moved over and picked up the empty cup from Spike's last meal.

*Simplified.* Tara sighed. *Was that a wise move?* She shook her head already having an answer.

*To keep this family together, to stop Buffy from being torn apart inside, to protect everyone.* Madalene gave her reasons softly, a concern was in her voice but there was no hint of remorse.

*And to make Buffy think I distrust her abilities to solve the problem.* Tara moved slowly to the door.

*That is simply defused.* Madalene tried to appease her as she followed closing the garage door behind her. *I'll explain the spell was removed by a third party.*

*Thus making her worry that there is a hugely powerful witch wandering around Sunnydale.* Tara stopped by the front door.

*I'm sorry.* Madalene for the first time sounded unsure. *I'll tell her what I did, so she knows the truth.*

*No, maybe it is better she thinks it's me.* Tara pushed the front door open and stepped inside.

*No, she is better being upset with me. I didn't want this to fall on you.* The Spellcaster objected. *I just wanted all of you safe.*

*I know, but she's already decided I'm not the Tara she once knew, I think I proved that last night.* The blonde glanced up the stairs hearing and hearing noises in the kitchen she changed her direction.

"Is everything okay baby?" Willow came out looking worried by not panicked yet.

"Of course sweetie." Tara nodded walking to her and taking the redhead's hand. "Spike's gone, the spell was removed." She raised the hand to her lips to kiss the back of it.

"How? When?" Willow questioned. "Where did he go?"

"We don't know." Tara admitted. "But it's okay because the house is protected." She spoke gently. "We could do a sweep and tracer." She looked at Madalene.

"Of course, anything to make everyone safe." The Spellcaster underlined with a nod.

Before Tara could say anything else, Buffy stalked into the kitchen fully dressed and looking more like she was ready for patrol then a crisp sunny autumn morning. She pulled open the fridge and grabbed a juice box and then moved straight to the door.

"If anyone wants to call, I have the cell." She patted her pocket and pulled open the door, obviously not intending to give anyone any explanation.

"Buffy, where are you going?" Dawn questioned following her.

"To find Spike." She clarified with a glance at Tara.

"Are you sure that is what you should do? He might already be gone; Tara and Madalene can do a tracer." Willow questioned.

"Willow I know you're not okay with what I was doing about Spike but…" Buffy frowned at her best friend. "But I have to know he's okay." She looked apologetic but unmovable in her decision. "I don't ever want to hurt you, any of you, but…" She frowned again. "He needs someone to help him right now."

"Okay." Willow moved closer to Tara cowering a bit.

"Why don't we start on breakfast?" Mads tried to rally everyone around a task that wouldn't involve harsh words and glares.

"Actually sorry I'm really not hungry." Tara shook her head.

"I'll be back when I find him, or after patrol." Buffy turned to leave but looked back. "Dawn, don't forget to do your make up work." Not waiting for a response she closed the door loudly behind her.

Madalene sighed as the aftermath of her decision took hold.

"I so can't believe she did it Giles." Buffy flopped down on the Watcher's couch. She'd visited every dark corner in Sunnydale but the peroxide vampire was no where to be found.

"With your account of last night, perhaps she felt she had no choice? Perhaps she hoped it would relieve you of your responsibility." Giles summed up. "After all he has left town."

"And gone where? I mean do I call Angel and check he shows up there?" Buffy asked sitting up. "If he's not there what do I do then?" She pushed up to stand and paced a bit away. "I want to believe she did it for me, for everyone but this just isn't Tara, not our Tara."

"Calling Angel would be a logical start." Giles nodded. "Though Buffy, there is a logical reason that Tara is acting more assertively."

"She's not our Tara?" Buffy made the ridiculous suggestion.

"I think when you and Madalene exhumed her from the grave of Tara Maclay we established her identity Buffy." Giles looked at her more than tired of the negative attitude she was taking. "I meant more she has not experienced the past as the old Tara had that is not that she can remember. She cannot recall those occurrences that made her the shy and ingressive person she was before her return. The result of that may well be that she is not the passive woman that she once was forced to be, she has her focus on Willow now, protecting her while she is so fragile and I believe she is taking that role very seriously."

"You're saying that because she can't remember the fact that her dad scared her senseless Tara's got a backbone? Or that she's Tara the woman she would have been if she'd never been abused?" Buffy sighed and sat back down for a moment thinking about that. But just as the logic of that explanation started to settle in her head, complete irrationality took hold again. "Or it could be that demon thing." She stood up again.

"Demon thing?" Giles followed her with his eyes.

"You know, Madalene said she had no clue what waking up Tara's demon side would reveal. You know she said it could make her a better witch, but what if it's changing her?" She looked at her Watcher. "What if…" She looked at the rows of books. "How can we know how different Tara will become?"

"Buffy, I really think you are reading far too much into Madalene's comment. I believe she was referring to the latent power of the heritage, not some alteration of Tara's basic personality. She is the same woman she was before she returned; just that she is no longer… well a pushover." Giles scolded her slightly.

"Yeah but Giles, Mads is one too." Buffy retaliated, her conspiracy theory growing.

"Buffy, don't you think perhaps you are trying far too hard to find another villain in this?" The Watcher questioned.

"No." Buffy shook her head. "Come on, we don't know anything about this heritage, you know that as much as I do. We've just accepted it all because it gave us Tara back and that helped Willow, but we don't know what demon they are from, what powers they could have. This could hurt Willow more in the long run." She argued spiralling further.

"I will do more research, but you must promise me to keep an open mind until we find any evidence to suggest this malevolent underbelly to the heritage you are hypothesising." He tried to preach tolerance.

"I have an open mind." Buffy stressed. "Hello I leave her with my sister and my best friend. Hell, I leave both of them with them isn't that like me being so open minded I'm in danger of my brain escaping?" She moved out the door. "Thinking about that though, I should get back on the streets, do another sweep and get back to the house."

"I'll let you know if I've found anything." Giles assured her. If he was honest he was finding himself more concerned over Buffy's jumping to irrational and wild conclusions, than he was about any decisions or actions Tara may have made to release and drive Spike out of town.

"Hi, I… I hope you don't mind me just you know turning up again." Buffy glanced up and smiled at the young man looking back at her through the open door.

"Buffy, no of course I don't, please come in." Christian shook his head and opened the door to his apartment more.

"No." Buffy shook her head. "That is I should be going home but… I just wondered if I could see you later, if we could get together." She questioned hopefully.

"Definitely, I could make dinner." He smiled at her again.

"You cook?" Buffy asked him pleasantly surprised.

"I've been known too, with some success as well." He laughed a little. "I may look a little helpless but my mother ingrained a few survival techniques." He smiled broadly in the Slayer's direction.

"No of course, I didn't mean…" Buffy actually regretted making the statement.

"Buffy it's fine, I didn't take offence." Christian shook his head with a warm smile. "Why don't we just set a time for eight and you can chance what my mother taught me?" He offered softly.

"Eight is perfect." Buffy noted to herself knowing that hopefully she'd have enough time for a late patrol.

"Great, are you sure you won't come in? I can make coffee too." He motioned once more into the room.

"No really, I have to be getting home." She looked up into his soft eyes, "Thank you though." She added smiling a little. "I'll be back at eight though." She clarified.

"Great." Christian's smile grew into a wider happier one.

"Bye then." Buffy took a few steps backwards; still looking into the tall young man's eyes.

"See you later Buffy." Christian made the retreat easier by closing down the conversation and slowly shutting the door.

Buffy let herself into the house and took off her coat hanging it on the coat rack with the others. She looked into the living room and saw Willow sitting on the couch, a stripy cushion resting on her lap, with Dawn's head laying on it, the teenager stretched out across the rest of the couch, her long legs dangling over the padded arm.

The Slayer couldn't help but smile as she stood in the hallway watching the two of them completely engrossed at whatever was on the TV. A quick glance at the large screen told her what she should have already guessed, it was the nature channel.

Deliberately making enough noise to establish her presence Buffy pulled off her boots and walked into the room.

"Hey guys…" She said causally trying to keep things light with the two of them; after all they were the ones she wanted to protect. "How are you doing?" She inquired, "And what are they?" She added turning from looking at Willow to looking at the screen.

"Leaf cutter ants." Dawn replied not moving from her resting place.

"They're incredibly smart." Willow took up the explanation with a smile. "Even if they look kinda creepy you know." She gave a soft shrug. "It's just explaining how they map the floor with scent lines." Willow filled in as the screen turned from the confusing map of 'imaginary' coloured scent lines to the regular scene.

"Oh right." Buffy gave a half hearted smile as her thoughts were derailed slightly hearing vague noises from the kitchen. "Where's everyone?"

"Tara is making lunch and I think Madalene is helping her." Dawn still didn't look from the screen. She purposely seemed to be keeping herself from looking at her sister and especially from mentioning anything other than answering immediate and direct questions.

"Right," Buffy was about to leave them to the show when the phone rang, she crossed over to it and picked it up.

"Turn to CP24." Xander's panicked voice prompted immediately without greeting or niceties.

"Why?" Buffy asked as she walked over without hesitation and turned it to the local 24hours news channel.

She felt a numbness creep through her body as the immaculately dressed and coiffed news anchor continued her solemn account of how a family of three was found attacked in a small town about a half hour southwest of Sunnydale.

"Mr. Hasin Jerad and his wife Farah were taken to the local hospital with injuries classified as 'life threatening' only to be pronounced dead a short time later. Their three year old son Kaliah, and the family pet dog were found dead on the scene. Eye witnesses describe how there had been what sounded like sounds of a domestic argument which cascaded into a crescendo of noise with screaming and sounds of breaking furniture. The police first on the scene described the victims as appearing to have been attacked or bitten, though the wound were not said to be consistent with any the family pet could have caused." The reporter then began to describe how the Jerad's had been model citizens and that their son had been an angel, with a smile that could melt even the hardest heart.

Buffy's focus flipped from the screen back to the reality of her house when Xander's voice called her attention back to the phone.

"Buffy? Did you turn?" He questioned but before the Slayer could answer there was a squeak from the couch.

"SPIKE!" Willow was the one who uttered the scared word as she pointed to the screen her hand trembling.

"Willow, we don't know that..." Dawn, having been pushed from her place on Willow's lap began to try and soothe the redhead head, her voice trailing off however as she turned to look at the screen too.

Buffy immediately looked back at the television only to see a hand drawn sketch of a gaunt looking man, with a bald head.

"Police are eager to trace a man, described as pale and thin, with a shaved head and angular features. He was seen wandering in the location of the house less than an hour before the reported attack."

"His chip isn't working, he's going to kill everyone." Willow pulled further into the corner of the couch her breathing a bit erratic as she tried to keep the sudden impulsive fear from overtaking her.

A split second later Tara ran in from the kitchen in response to her lover's squeak.

"Sweetie what's wrong?" She asked as she hurried in, coming to a stop as she followed the shaking motion of her lovers hand towards the screen. The in studio reporter was going over the details of the incident again, and announced the telephone number of the police hotline, whilst again displaying the sketch of Spike.

"Seems your great idea to let Spike go to protect everyone might not have been so great." Buffy said in a firmly sarcastic voice as she stared at Tara. "But Will…" Her tone went softer. "Dawn's right, we don't know that Spike has anything to do with this, he could have just been there, trying to find his way to somewhere else, you know how confused he was. It could have been any demon, or vampire attack. There were demons after him remember, trying to hurt him for the things he did to the bad guys when he was helping us." She tried to make her friend feel better. "And there's no reason to think there is anything wrong with his chip." She added.

"But… But… there could be… he could have travelled there and killed them." Willow's eyes darted erratically over the screen.

"Sweetie, its okay." Tara said as she moved from the doorway to slid onto the couch, some how managing to fit in behind the redhead who immediately turned and cuddled into her. "He can't hurt you."

"See what you've done." Dawn suddenly pushed up from the couch and stared hard at her sister, her voice cold and accusing. "You should have just killed him when he turned up."

"What?" Buffy stared at her aghast. "Excuse me, when he was in my garage where I put him there wasn't any problem of him hurting anyone." She shook her head to her sister's accusation and then turned her glare at Tara. "It wasn't me who let him go." She underlined with an even harsher tone. "Now I have to look for him and find out what killed those people."

Madalene had been watching everything with tunnel vision as the enormous weight of her actions crushed down on her body. She moved over to the armchair and sat down shakily.

"Buffy." It was Xander's voice on the phone who tried to call the Slayer to attention, having over heard the conversation from the other end.

"What?" Buffy snapped to the room, not connecting with the fact that Xander wasn't actually present. "Am I supposed to be all happy Slayer because I no longer have an insane vampire in my garage? A three year old child is dead, his parents are dead and all because a resurrected witch is on a power trip?" The Slayer again turned the focus onto Tara. "All this big talk about your main thing being protecting Willow, you think this is protecting Willow? Look at her Tara, does she look un-scared and protected?"

"Buffy." Madalene looked up her voice softer than she wanted but the enormity of how wrong things had possibly gone made her unable to reach the volume she had wanted to intervene.

"No Madalene, if Tara wants to be all Miss. Tough I make the choices big shot then she has to know she takes the consequences." Buffy's ranting couldn't be derailed. "She has to know that there is always a knock on effect to anything you do."

"Hey there Buf, tone it down." Xander could be heard from the phone trying to help.

"Did I ask you?" The Slayer snapped into the mouth piece. "Tara made a decision and took an action that affected so many other people, but she didn't once stop to ask any of them if it was okay. If these people are dead because of Spike, because of what is hunting and trying to hurt Spike it's her fault Xander, not yours, not mine, hers and she has to understand and face that." She moved her focus again from the phone to Tara. "Do you get that? Do you have any comprehension of what you could have done?

Tears instantly welled in Tara's blue eyes, for even if she was a little stronger and bolder than the Tara Maclay who remembered the bad things in her past, she was still fundamentally the same emotional and gentle soul.

"Buffy, I…" The blonde shook her head trying for the sake of her lover not to loose focus.

"Leave Tara alone." Dawn growled angrily staring at Buffy. "She made a choice at least that choice didn't leave all of us in danger from a crazy vampire."

"You weren't in danger." Buffy turned to her, the tension in the room rising to a near impossible high. "He was secure and safe, and so were all of you. She let him go and now a whole family has been destroyed."

"But if it was the gang following Spike that did this and not Spike then what was stopping them doing to us what they did to them." Dawn bit back putting her hand on her hip in a pose that more or less reflected Buffy's perfectly.

"I was." The Slayer said flatly. "Me, the Slayer, the one who has the power to stop these demons. Did they have a Slayer who could stop them?" She pointed at the screen. "No, that's why they are all dead, a whole family, gone. Well if you wanted to be the big woman and know what it felt like to be me Tara then congratulations, how does it feel to have let a three year old die with his parents?"

"STOP IT!" The exclamation came from Madalene who up until this point had been completely silent, just shaking softly in the chair. "I released him, not Tara." Madalene said in a stronger voice as she stood up. "Tara didn't know anything about it."

For what seemed the longest time the Summers' living room went completely silent as the truth settled on everyone.

It was the Slayer who was the first to over come her shock.

"Great," She announced throwing her arms up into the air. "Suddenly everyone thinks they're the Slayer." She slammed her hands down again and more or less dropped the phone receiver back into its cradle, cutting Xander off immediately. "Well guess what none of you are, I am, and it's now it's me that has to deal with this." There was anger, disgust and frustration filling her voice as she turned her back on everyone, pushed her feet into her boots and pulled on her coat.

"Where are you going?" Dawn moved into the hallway unable to believe that apparently Buffy was just going to bail on them all.

"I'm going to find Spike, stick his chipped butt back in the garage and then kill whatever did that to those people." Buffy explained precisely her view of things and her plan. "All of you stay put, and don't do anything else helpful." She gave Madalene a cold stare before she stalked out.

"Where are you going?" Anya looked at Xander with a frown as he pulled on a jacket.

"To Buffy's something's really wrong." The young man replied with a hard frown.

"Really wrong?" Anya frowned too. "How wrong is really wrong? Has Willow flipped again? Tara can sort her out if she has, she's good with her. Better than we ever were.

"It's not Willow, its Buffy." Xander pointed out.

"Buffy's gone crazy? Wow, who's going to do the magic crayon thing with her?" Anya picked up a hair brush and moved to the closest mirror.

"No she's not gone crazy crazy, just you know she's not seeing things as evenly as she could." Xander made a reason for the behaviour he'd overheard.

"Well understandably, her old boyfriend did just eat a few people." The demon shrugged.

"Okay, one, Spike was never Buffy's boyfriend; two, we don't know that this has anything to do with Spike and three, Spike never was Buffy's boyfriend." He repeated.

"Boyfriend, sex toy, perverse pleasure let out." Anya offered other titles.

"Okay Anya, enough. I'm going to Buffy's and you and your helpful comments are staying here." He offered the schedule.

"Well okay." Anya breathed out in a huff. "But if something good happens and I miss it, you'll be in so much trouble."

Christian opened the door a little surprised to see Buffy there on his doorstep. He pushed up his cuffs and looked at his wristwatch quickly to check the time.

"I thought we set dinner for eight?" He asked embarrassed as he'd just been cleaning up his bathroom in anticipation of her visit.

"We did." Buffy looked up and blinked at him apologetically, "I have to cancel, that is can I have a rain check, I have to go out of town for a while." She gave some reason for her change of heart.

"Oh." He frowned a bit disappointed. "Is everything okay?" He checked seeing the weight that hung around her.

"Yes." Buffy nodded. "That is… it will be, things at the moment could be better." She admitted, "But it has nothing to do with you, that is, I mean in a bad way, that is the could be better things aren't any of the 'you' things in my life."

"Buffy it's okay, I believe you that it's not a 'rain check because you don't want to come to dinner' situation. Is there anything I can help with?" He motioned for her to come in.

"I wish it was." The Slayer admitted with a hard sigh, shaking her head that coming it wasn't really in her time plan.

"How are you getting to out of town? Do you need a drive?" Christian offered reaching for her keys.

"You don't know how much I would like to take you up on that, the idea of having intelligent normal conversation during a journey no matter how short sounds soooo good." Buffy laughed sadly.

"But?" Christian saw her hesitation. "Does this have anything to do with the lead story on the news?" He asked his voice lower.

"The lead story on the…" Buffy tried to fluff her way past the question. "You mean the drop in the status of the dollar?"

"No, I meant the mutilated bodies." He raised his eyebrows a little causing Buffy to swallow with a hard sigh. As the silence dragged on and he didn't offer anymore it became somehow obvious to her that he knew something more then he had been letting on about her.

"Oh God please tell me you know nothing about anything, and you think I'm an undercover cop or something." She offered with a wince.

"Actually Buffy, why don't I drive you and I can explain what I do and don't know?" He pulled on his coat and moved out into the hall with her.

"Am I going to regret this, in an end up having to stake you way?" Buffy gave him an uneasy look.

"Oh heavens no." Christian shook his head adamantly. "I'm 100% alive and not a vampire or demon." He reached up and pulled the chain from inside his collar showing the cross he had around his neck.

"Good to know." Buffy actually smiled. "Come on then drive me to Davisville and explain to me why you're not freaking out and offering to drive me to the hospital rather than anywhere else."

"Thank you for coming Xander, really but as you can see, Buffy didn't wait around to see the outcome of the whole episode." Madalene said softly as she walked with him to the door.

His visit had been more than brief, having discovered when he arrived that Dawn had retreated to her room. Tara was comforting Willow on the couch, which consisted of hugs, reassuring kisses and a story. Madalene was making her self busy, doing nothing and generally keeping out of people's way. The young carpenter soon realised that the moment had passed and that in lots of ways him staying around was just making an uncomfortable situation slightly more so.

"I'm kinda sorry I called, the phone call that is, I'm not sorry I came over to check everyone is okay." Xander admitted as they stopped at the living room door and he gave Tara a quick wave.

"No, you should have called, even without the whole Spike thing, Buffy would have wanted to know, and it was too close to the Hellmouth for it not to be her problem." Madalene rationalised.

"Yeah but still." He frowned nodding slightly towards his best friend who lay curled up against her lover.

"I know." Madalene sympathised softly.

"How about I call you guys later, see if you've heard anything?" Xander offered.

"Why not leave it until morning?" Mads countered. "Give everyone time to have rested some."

Xander nodded again that this was the better suggestion.

"Okay, well take care you guys." He said lingering on the doorstep a little, before moving off to his car feeling a little defeated.

Christian turned off the highway and slowed down as he entered the edge of the city limits.

"No, Quentin is my mother's older brother. When my mother passed away, I was left in his care. Of course he did everything he could to teach me in the Watcher's arts, making sure I knew my lore, had a broad spectrum education and then was ready to slip into the organization. Unfortunately I don't have my Uncle's view of the world and the role of the Slayer." Christian summed up.

"So you ran away to California?" Buffy eyed him a little suspiciously.

"I took an opportunity when it arose to get my nose out of books and see the real world. To see the workings of an actual Hellmouth, and perhaps meet the greatest Slayer in history." He flashed Buffy a smile.

"Okay up until that point you were okay, that last bit earned you an ewwww creepy factor." Buffy laughed lightly.

"You hadn't laughed in awhile, I thought you were due." The Englishman winked at her. "So, I told you my story, are you going to explain why we're here now?" He pulled over into a gas station parking area.

"It's just too close to the Hellmouth for me to ignore." The blonde hoped the explanation she gave Christian didn't sound as lame to him as it had in her head before she'd said it.

"Mmmmm okay, so you must have a good reason for not telling me." He looked back out to the dark sky. "Where do you want to start looking around?"

"The usual places. You drive safely home now." She leaned over and unfastened her seatbelt.

"Do you really think that I'm going to just drop you off and head back to Sunnydale? I'm sorry my lady but my mother raised me better than that." Christian turned off the car and undid his seatbelt. He reached into the centre console and pulled out a stake which he tucked it into his jacket.

"Wait a minute." Buffy arched her eyebrow. "Christian I've listened to everything you've told me, and I accept that you're being honest and everything, but you maybe trained as a Watcher, but that doesn't mean that you can handle a demon one to one." She objected.

"I don't need to handle the demons, I'm with the Slayer." He got out and leaned to look at her through the door. "I just have to keep out of your way and not be a yank boy trying to take on more than I can handle."

Buffy laughed again softly.

"What is it about the council that breads you people brave but slightly stupid." Buffy shook her head. "Look I'm worried that this problem has something to do with a demon, well a vampire that I kinda 'know'." She explained a little more.

"Does this vampire have a name?" Christian moved around and opened her door.

Buffy smiled as she got out, touched by the perfect 'gentlemen' behaviour.

"He does, but I'd rather not tell you it." Buffy was honest. "And if it is him, I don't really want to have to kill him, at least not till I've actually talked to him." She realised how 'odd' her words sounded but she didn't know what else to say, after all Christian had been honest with her, didn't that mean she owe him something?

"Okay, I'll trust you on this one." Christian closed the door behind her. "Lead on to where you think we'll find your friend."

"We'll start in the cemetery." Buffy replied. "That is in one of the cemeteries, you didn't happen to have a street map of this place in your car did you, you know like a Watcher, always ready for anything." She asked hopefully.

"Let me see what I can do." Christian smiled and walked over to the store attached to the gas station. Very quickly he came back unfurling a map. "Apparently there are only two cemeteries." He showed her the two of them on the map. "This one is farther, should we go there and work our way back?"

"See now I'm thinking I should have known you're from the Council, or a demon, most everyday people are never this logical." Buffy laughed.

"It's a breeding thing." Christian laughed as they headed down the street towards the first stop on their cemetery tour.

Madalene carried in the tray, laden with a brewing pot of herbal tea and a couple of cups.

"Anyone for tea?" She asked softly looking to where Willow was curled up asleep on the couch next to Tara. Despite being grounded, it had been difficult to say no to Dawn when she'd asked to go over and hang for a few hours at a friend's house to get away from the 'insanity'. "I guess that would be would you like tea Tara?" She amended her statement as she placed the tray down on the coffee table.

"I'll say yes, but forgive me if I just nurse it and don't actually get round to drink it." Tara gave her a slightly smile. "How are you?" She added looking closely at her cousin's face.

"Unsure." Madalene said honestly taking her cup and basically doing as Tara had outlined as she cradled it in her hands to enjoy the heat. "Things are more than a bit crazy right now."

"They are, and if I'm honest I don't think any of us can say that we're seeing this level headedly." Tara gave her a gentle smile. "What do you want to do to make the unsure, sure?"

"Make Spike disappear before any of this became an issue?" Madalene offered the impossible idea.

"I was thinking more you know," Tara gave a sympathetic smile. "Something doable."

"Honestly I don't know." Mads frowned back. "I keep racking my brain but nothing comes up. You?"

"Keeping Willow safe and happy is my number one priority." Tara underlined unnecessarily. "Other than that no I have no clue. Part of me wants to shake Buffy hard and try and get her to see, then another part of me thinks that maybe I'm the one who over reacted, and yet another part of me wishes we were all a day away from a two week holiday in the Bahamas, guaranteed vampire and demon free."

"The last option seems nice." Madalene smiled. "So does the shaking Buffy, and the whole I think I did something over the top too."

"We all did what we thought was right." Tara shook her head. "There is no right, no wrong about the past." She underlined softly. "Maybe we just all need some nice sleep and tea." She smiled.

"Maybe." Madalene nodded. "I feel even worse because I can't keep my mind totally focused on everything going on here." She admitted softly. "I keep thinking… about Sarah."

"Oh Mads." Tara frowned as she felt suddenly horrible for not paying enough attention to her cousin. "I'm sorry; this must be terrible for you, your mind all over the place. Is there any way I can help you, maybe do some research, or help you with some meditations so you actually manage to get rest?"

"I was thinking of research." Madalene nodded. "Maybe if I focus my mind on something then the rest of the craziness will find some perspective."

"Well I was thinking of looking for places for Willow and I to rent, how about helping me browse through the papers or the internet?" Tara offered.

"You still want to move out?" Madalene questioned knowing that Tara had good reasons to want to move Willow out into their own place, but on the same hand feeling bruised for Buffy that it had come to this.

"Maybe, I'm thinking more long term though, I mean we can't live here forever, to be honest I don't think the house is the best place for Willow." Tara was honest with her cousin. "I did die here." She spelled out.

"I don't think this house is healthy for anyone, Willow or Dawn… even Buffy." The Spellcaster agreed quickly. "Perhaps we could do a little research, find out what the house would be worth, find out what new one could be bought… really give Buffy an alternative? We could find a place with room for her to work out, a room for her weapons, maybe a basement apartment separate for you and Willow?"

Tara felt a soft smile cross her face.

"That sounds like a great plan, not forgetting an attic apartment for you." She added slightly cautiously.

"Sounds lovely." Madalene smiled back at her. "But I'd rather make sure the four of you are settled, I can live anywhere."

"You can, but I'd like to know where that 'anywhere' is." Tara said subtly.

"You'll always know couz." Mads took a sip of her tea. "And if I ever get lost, I'm sure you can just…" She tapped her temple. "Give me a call."

"I will." Tara nodded instantly. "You're my family Madalene, and I can't stress to you how much that means to me." She underlined softly. "From everything I've heard, the family I left behind wasn't one to miss, but you, you've done nothing but enhance my life."

"Anything I have given you, you've given me back tenfold." Madalene said softly. "To have your trust and love, to know in my heart that I have you through anything means so much."

"Good." Tara nodded softly her mind settled on trying to make the immediate atmosphere in the house as good as it could be, "So come on, its house shopping time." She gave a childlike grin.

Dawn pulled her legs up so that she was sitting cross-legged on the long and wide slab of concrete that lined the back parking lot at the White Castle. She'd agreed a little reluctantly to come with Janice to get something to eat because she was feeling completely anti-social. When they had arrived the place had been filled with people from school so she'd gotten a shake and slipped out to sit under a street lamp where it was well lit.

"I hate my life." She played with the straw letting it make a squeaky noise as it moved back and forth.

"Hey there, couldn't help but notice you slip out." From beside her the soft quiet voice of Lisa gently interrupted the teenager's self analysis. "You probably didn't even notice me in there..." She stopped and looked down for a moment, "Not that I'm checking up on your or anything, just I thought you were like grounded." She added hoping she'd not over stepped anything.

"I am, but I managed to get a couple of hours get out of jail free." Dawn looked up and smiled seeing it was Lisa. "You were sitting with Chris, Deek, Amanda and Rosie." She added to show the blonde she had seen her. "It's busy in there tonight." She tacked on motioning for Lisa to sit down if she wanted.

The other teenager did indeed lower herself down beside Dawn.

"Yeah I thought it might help the whole integration thing if I actually took up any offers of going out." She glanced back towards the crowded diner. "I'm not sure if it achieved that or whether I'm now just a few dollars poorer."

"Invites to White Castle are always social points." Dawn explained. "Since it is the only place in Sunnydale that doesn't kick out a group of more than four teenagers it is 'the place' to be seen." She took a sip of her shake. "How's has school been?"

"Tolerable, just." Lisa admitted. "All the teachers are being to nice if you know what I mean."

"Ewww uncomfortable." Dawn screwed up her nose. "The crowd you were with are nice, not the stupid jocks and pom pom crowd, but pretty high on the social ladder." She laughed. "I sound like one of the pom pom's now don't I?" She frowned a little. "I don't really care that much about being in a popular clique, well it wouldn't matter... I'm pretty much a loser anyway." She sighed.

"You're not a loser, why would you think that?" Lisa asked with a frown, glancing at Dawn.

"I don't know." Dawn turned a bit towards her. "I guess it's cause all of this high school stuff is so artificial, everyone thinks it's so important if you have a new pair of sneakers or if you have an expensive perfume. None of it matters really."

"You're really down tonight, what's wrong? Is your friend Willow sick again?" Lisa enquired softly.

"A little, Spike..." Dawn stopped realizing that she was about to go into a long rant about how the vampire was back and he had a soul now and he was crazy, but her brain started to remind her that all of it only made her sound like the crazy one. "He's Buffy's ex... He's not a nice guy. He came back to town and he and Willow have bad history... So everyone at my house is all freaky."

"I'm sorry to hear that; you're not having a great time of it right now are you?" She said softly, reaching out to rest her hand on Dawn's knee, "I'm always available if you want to chat or rant or anything okay?" She looked at Dawn with a genuinely concerned smile.

"Thanks." Dawn said softly looking up to meet blue eyes. "You're really nice. I'm sorry everyone gives you a hard time about being gay, it shouldn't matter."

"It shouldn't but like you said before, high school is such a microcosm, things aren't real in it, the stuff that's not important is world ending, and the world ending stuff is just well, ignored." Lisa gave a soft shrug but smiled back at Dawn, "I made the choice to be open about being gay, I should have chosen wiser I guess."

"No." Dawn said immediately in a firm voice. "It's who you are. You shouldn't have to hide anything, not because people are closed minded and stupid." She shook her head. "Okay stop me before I sound too after school special-ish." She gave a slight smirk. "So anyone in class you think is cute?" She tried a more 'fun' topic.

"It's kinda hard to look at people that when as soon as you turn your back, one of them is trying to hit you." Lisa replied with a laugh.

"Ugh that sucks, but come on... I won't say anything to anyone and I won't hit you." She smiled. "Who do you think is good looking?"

"Well." Lisa paused. "There are a couple of nice looking girls in our year." She gave a soft shrug, "Though all very straight, I find it's best to not even daydream about the straight ones."

"I can imagine that sucks." Dawn agreed sympathetically. "So who famous do you like?" She asked. "And before you say Angelina Jolie, I know she is the ultimate, even straight girls would sleep with her." She laughed and made Lisa laugh harder.

"You can so tell you live with lesbians." She leaned back a little.

"I've seen all the movies I'm sure, even some of the ones I'm not supposed to watch." Dawn blushed a little.

"Well its not you're fault if they leave things in the DVD player now is it." The blonde winked.

"See you understand." Dawn smiled more. "If you want to come over and watch any that you haven't seen, Willow loves to show off her DVD collection. She has all kinds of them, like 50 or something."

"I'm not sure that's classed as helping you with make up work." Lisa pointed out.

"Well no, but that's not fun." Dawn reminded her and then looked briefly at the busy restaurant. "If you're not totally into being here, did you want to go back to my house? We just bought the Incredibles, not lesbian I know but it's cute and funny."

"I thought you were avoiding your house, or did I just imagine that?" Lisa titled her head slightly, "We have a copy of 'Finding Neverland' on hire." She offered an alternative.

"Ooo with Johnny Depp? He's so mysteriously slimy." Dawn used Tara's phrase with a smile. "Would your Mom mind me coming over this late?"

"Not at all." Lisa shook her head.

"Cool, just let me tell Janice I'm going." Dawn smiled at her and stood up throwing her almost empty shake in the nearby trash can.

"No please, don't feel you have to explain, just because I'm willing to face whatever this is with you that doesn't make you in some way beholden to me." Christian laughed as together they drew closer to the second cemetery.

"Oh yes because that doesn't sound like bribery or blackmail." Buffy shook her head.

"It's neither." Christian underlined. "I understand that your life must be like hugely complicated, and that sometimes you just have to 'do' rather than talk about something." He stepped forward and opened the graveyard gate.

"Okay you really are being a bit too understanding." Buffy eyed him with an arched eyebrow.

The young man's bright laugh filled the quiet night.

"In that case." He stopped near the closest headstone and leaned lightly against it. "Explain everything else I don't move an inch." He folded his arms across his chest.

Buffy continued walking for a moment not expecting him to actually stay there. When he did however she back tracked and looked at him.

"Are you always this extremist?" She asked of the Englishman.

"No, but you're the first real live Slayer I've ever met, maybe it's my inner watcher coming out." He smiled.

"Oh great just what I need." She shook her head and beckoned to him to at least get up and walk again. "Okay I'll explain, but remember, it's long, complicated and probably completely boring."

"Duly warned." Christian pushed off the headstone and moved back to her side.

Madalene waited for the printer to finish spitting the ink onto the page and then picked it up grinning.

"It's so cute." Madalene handed the picture over to Tara. "And the garage is huge, it could be a hub for all Scooby activity."

"Completely." Tara nodded in agreement happily. "Xander could section off areas in the garage, have a work out space for Buffy, a place for Willow to tinker with her electronics, and you and I could have an herb garden. What's the betting Dawnie would want something outrageous like a broken down old motorbike that she can fix up at the weekends and turn into a dream machine for her to tour the state on?"

"Mmm Dawnie as a grease monkey?" The Spellcaster laughed as she thought about it. "That I will have to see."

"As long as she never cuts off that gorgeous hair." Tara stipulated.

"That would be tragic." Madalene agreed and then found herself trying to stifle a yawn. "I think I might have finally hit my sleep deprivation limit."

"I know what you mean, do you have enough energy to help me stir the 'oh so sleepy' Willow so I can at least get her up to bed?" Tara asked.

"Defiantly." Madalene turned off the printer and moved over to help Tara.

"Clearer now?" Buffy asked as they took a small gravel path that led them to an older section of the cemetery.

"Um... sorta... Spike has a soul?" Christian stopped and looked at her trying to filter the information. "And the chip in his head?" He questioned.

"Yes, to both." Buffy nodded. "But, the problem is, when vampires, as old as Spike, get their soul back, they kinda go... well, crazy." She pointed out as they walked.

"Mmmmm that I can understand, having a soul and having the memory of all the innocents you have so savagely eaten." The Englishman nodded. "And you fear he's the one behind this latest killing?"

"I know it doesn't make sense, especially with the chip and everything, but he's pretty much insane right now, and what's a little pain to someone who's insane. That and I think something bad was after him." Buffy tried to continue her explanation as thoroughly as possible, not thinking to question why she was so easily trusting and opening up to this relative stranger.

"What do you plan to do when we find him?" Christian asked the all important question.

"To be honest, I don't know." Buffy admitted with a hard sigh. "I just, you know, feel that somehow this is all my fault." She stopped and looked at him with a slight smile. "Crazy huh."

"No." Christian shook his head and smiled back at her. "I have an old friend from Uni who is chronically getting into trouble, no matter how much money I waste on trying to help her, every time she needs me I just can't help but be there. Of course that might make us both crazy."

Buffy gave him a real smile.

"I just don't want him to get into any more trouble, or get hurt because of something I could have stopped. You see I had him nice and safe in my garage, but then someone I trusted kinda betrayed me and let him go, leaving him to roam alone, crazy and being stalked by something that wants to kill him." Her smile faded.

"Well why don't we find him and then you can decide what you want to do?" Christian prompted. "I'd say that looks promising." He pointed to a crypt with a broken entryway.

"Okay." Buffy gave a nod. "You sure you're okay with this?" She checked readying her stake.

"I'm fine." Christian stated confidently and motioned for her to lead.

Sluggishly the Spellcaster pulled the nightdress over her head and moved back the blankets. She'd been thinking about incense and a meditation but her eyes felt like they were weighted with bricks and as her body sank into the bed she groaned as she realized she'd left the light on.

Clumsily she reached out to turn off the light and as she pulled her hand back she pulled the clock off the side table and the heavy metal clock bounced off her forehead.

"Ouch!" The Spellcaster reached up to rub the welt on her head as she put the clock back on the side. Laying back down she sighed unable to believe she'd just given herself a headache on top of everything else.

As she lay in bed she thought sleep would come slowly but suddenly she felt a wind whipping by her face, a hot stagnant wind that made her lungs start to hurt.

Madalene tried to catch her breath as she ran down the long gravel driveway. Her lungs were burning, she could taste the metallic taste of blood as it pooled back from her throbbing lip down her throat.

She ran past the house and towards the large barn at the back end of the property.

"Sar-ah?" She heard her staggered words come out a bit bubbly as she leaned against the doorframe trying to keep the now spinning world from taking her down into unconsciousness.

"Mad?" From within the cluttered barn, came a call of concern accompanied by the sound of something metallic, like a spanner or wrench hitting the floor. Sarah hurried toward the entrance wiping her hands on an oiled piece of rag hooked into the waist of her messy cut off jeans.

Madalene basically hurtled herself at the sound of Sarah's voice, somehow trusting that the redhead would catch her.

Which is exactly what the taller woman did, holding Madalene to her chest for a moment before easing her back, frowning deeply as she looked at her face.

"What happened?" She demanded quickly pressing her hand into her pocket pulling out a surprisingly clean tissue, dabbing it against Madalene's lip.

"Christine and Tiffany." Madalene found herself starting to cry and the salty tears burned into the scratch marks on her cheeks.

"What did those bitches do?" Sarah hisses her eyes narrowing a little as she continued to gently try and clean Madalene's wounds.

"One of the jocks tripped Martin Fairwell in the cafeteria and he spilt his lunch. I went to help him clean up and I put my bag down away from the spill." Madalene began to try to explain through her tears and pain. "Christine got up and tripped over it and got some of the mess on her skirt. She freaked out and hit me, then…" She took in a staggered breath. "It's all such a blur."

"Okay," Sarah took a slow breath encouraging Madalene to follow her lead as she moved them into the barn and over to a fold out chair. "Sit down." She guided gently, "Let's get you cleaned up a little, and then we can go through it bit by bit."

Madalene moved over as she was prompted and silently for awhile let Sarah clean up her face.

"I'm sorry." Madalene sniffled.

"Don't say that." Sarah squatted in front of her, "This isn't your fault." She underlined solidly. "Okay so let me get this straight, you went to help someone and prize one bitch messed up her skirt 'cause she's got the dexterity of a snail and she turned on you?"

"Her and Tiffany." Madalene nodded. "I was on the floor, they kept hitting me, and everyone was screaming and yelling and then…" She hesitated. "I used magic." She whispered ashamed.

"Magic." It was obvious to anyone the tension that filled Sarah's shoulder at the mere mention of the word.

"It hurt so much…" Madalene pulled her arms tight around her body. "I just wanted it to stop… they both flew off me… and everyone started chanting Freak, Freak, Freak." She rocked back and forth a little in the chair.

"Sssssh baby its okay." Sarah pressed up to stand, cupping the back of Madalene's head to her body lightly. "You listen to me okay, you're not a freak, they are, for starting something when all there was going on was a genuine human being was offering another help." She briefly kissed Madalene's head.

"I am a freak, I am." Madalene sobbed as she leaned against Texas' body.

"You are not." Sarah's voice was full of conviction. "You are beautiful and the most unfreakish person I know, well apart from me." Sarah tipped Madalene's head up slightly smiling down at her. "Since I'm just boring unfreakish me."

"You're not a freak." Madalene shook her head. "You're beautiful."

"Exactly, as are you." Sarah clarified. "Mad, tell me, why are we waiting? What difference is a few months gonna make?" She squatted down again keeping eye contact with the Spellcaster. "Let me take you away, from all of this, just you and me, fighting against the world. This place owes us nothing, nothing at all." She underlined flatly. "And we owe it even less."

"But… this is your home." Madalene objected very weakly.

"You, you are my home, not this; this is just bricks, wood and crap." Sarah took both of her hands in Madalene's. "You hear me missy."

"I want to be safe in our home, I don't feel safe here." The dark haired teenager looked at the redhead.

"Then we leave." Sarah shook her head. "You're smart, really smart, any school you miss you could make up no sweat."

"I love you." Madalene felt herself whisper the worlds and then in a flood the real world came back to her and she was lying in bed in the pitch dark. "No!" She felt the icy feeling on her skin and instantly panicked.

"I think I would like to restate my position." Christian yelped as he ducked another volley of rocks that were being thrown down the dark tunnel at them as they crouched behind a broken sarcophagus. "This might not be fine." He looked at Buffy who seemed strangely calm.

"They're only rocks, if it were body parts I'd be worried too." Buffy flashed him a quick smile.

"Well I guess when you put it that way." He looked at her with a flash of horror. "What do we do?"

"Well we could try dodging the rocks." Buffy offered as one hit the side of the sarcophagus and smacked Christian on the arm. Suddenly the flurry of rocks seemed to stop.

"Is that a good sign or a bad sign?" Christian asked sceptically.

"Depends what was throwing the rocks." Buffy replied honestly. "If it was a horde of you know, very basic rock throwing vampires, it could mean they're tired, or if it was some kind of rock eating demon, it could be you know, full."

Rather slowly the air around them filled with a disgusting rotting smell, and feeling the hair pressed down lightly on his forehead with small puffs of air, Christian looked very slowly up to see the disfigured dark black demon face peering over at them. Two long fangs sparkled in the dim light and glowing red eyes looked back at him.

"Buffy." He said in a perfect calm whisper.

"Yeah I know the rock eating demon was like way out there but..." Buffy continued her rant for a little while oblivious before she turned and looked at the deep red eyes. "Oh." She breathed out. "I suggest you run, and I'll kill."

"Agreed." Christian rolled sideway away from the pair as Buffy pushed up, her hands digging into the creature's neck to push it away as he tried to move.

The creature of course had leverage on the Slayer, and soon it pushed over the crypt, knocking the blonde to the ground as it grabbled on top of her trying to bite her.

'Oh bollocks.' Christian thought as he glanced back while running to see that Buffy was pinned. Without thinking it picked up a flat section of the crypt top that had eroded off and moved to the side of the creature swinging it into the side of its head. The blow didn't kill it by any means but it made the demon fall off to the side squealing.

"Thank you." Buffy breathed out as she tried to catch her breath and checked to see the demon pulling itself back round to face them. "You're a tough little cookie aren't ya?" She rubbed her hands together and quickly moved in front of Christian to keep him from harm. "Any Watchery insight as to what this thing is?" She asked over her shoulder ducking as a demon arm swiped over her head.

"Glowing eyes, blackened skin, teeth... Mmmmm could be an Alicot." Christian offered. "Can be burnt, decapitated or I believe the section I read said drawn and quartered was best."

"Oh goodie," Buffy ducked again as the other arm swiped for her head. "Just what I wanted to hear when I'm armed with a stake." She added sarcastically.

"Sorry." Christian apologized as she continued to grapple with it. "You could try breaking its neck?" He offered as he watched her be hit by a thrown arm that knocked her back into the side wall of the crypt.

"Or we could just run away and get weapons, if we'd brought any with us that is." Buffy got straight up from her collision with the wall ignoring the blood trickling down the side of her face. "Come on you're the watcher - look around, anything look weapony?" She encouraged as she ran head long at the beat and jumped on its back raining down her fists on its head.

"Weapony?" Christian started to look around and in desperation pushed the remaining piece of stone off the top of the crypt. "Broken shovel?" He held up a broad iron shovel head with a broken handle.

"Better than nothing." Buffy wiggled her fingers for him to throw it as the demon underneath her writhed and bucked trying to dislodge its unwanted hitchhiker.

Christian threw it at her, not the best throw but it got within her reach.

Buffy caught it and then tossed it into the air again catching it with a better grip before bringing it hard flat against the side of the demon's head. There came a resounding 'crack' and the rusted metal split down the middle, half of the shovel head flying off into the crypt wall, the other half flipping up, narrowly missing Buffy's head to come down and lodge itself in the demon's shoulder, which made it howl in rage.

"Next weapon please." Buffy requested struggling to hang on.

"Oh... Mmmmm." Christian kept looking around. "Maybe we should revert to run for weapons?" He put up his hands in failure.

"It's a long run back to Sunnydale." Buffy squeaked as she was thrown over the demon's shoulder, hitting the back wall of the crypt again.

"Right... improvise." Christian rifled through his pockets. "Cell phone, keys... pocket knife?" He tried to toss the small impish weapon at Buffy as he started to play ring around the crypt with the demon who was hunting him.

The knife fell short of the Slayer who scampered across the dusty rock littered ground to retrieve it, she checked at regular intervals that her companion was managing to evade the lumbering attentions of the beast. Buffy pulled out the various small blades in the knife, electing eventually for the small saw. She glanced over at the pair that were still dancing around each other and then readied herself on her hands and knees.

"Jump." She instructed Christian.

"How high?" Christian asked stupidly as he actually ended up jumping to try and avoid a pile of rocks as he ran.

"That high is fine." Buffy said as the demon arched up to try and grab at the English man. The Slayer seized the moment and made a jump of her own, sliding under the demon's torso. Clutching the small knife in both hands she pushed the serrated blade as the full weight of the demon landed on top of her as the beast missed in its lunge and fell back to the ground.

Christian came back to the ground on his feet and turned holding his breath as he waited to see what had happened.

For a moment the demon paused, and almost puzzled expression on its face as it looked around the darkness trying to locate the other creature in there with it, then its body lurched a little, and a low pained growl emanated from low in its throat. Pushing up a little from the crypt floor it tried to relieve the sudden pain it was in, only to allow Buffy the space she had needed to shimmy forward dragging the now impaled pen knife up the demon's torso to its sternum, spraying herself and the demon with fresh foul smelling innards. Reaching the top of her slice Buffy was back handed away from the beast as it flailed and then attempted to hold its stomach together.

Buffy tucked and rolled out of the swipe and came up to rest on one knee, working out the best way to try and make a cross section of the hulking bleeding but roaring demon.

"I don't actually have to chop it into four bits do I?" She checked glancing back at Christian.

"Four... oh no." Christian shook his head. "As long as the sectioning cuts the heart, lungs, stomach and intestines, that works in most cases."

"Okay good." Buffy gave a nod and then ran bravely forward pushing the short penknife with all her strength through the demon hide, lodging it in the heart area, keeping the blade angled as the inevitable back hander came and pushed her away, this time though dragging the short blade across the demon's chest as the Slayer flew once more into the crypt wall.

"He's starting to get weaker." Christian almost felt like he was cheering her on.

"Great I know the feeling." Buffy groaned as she pulled herself up again, significantly slower this time. "Okay Alithingie or whatever you are, you wanna just die now and make it easier for us all?" She breathed heavily, looking at the demon, which growled in response, but then began to almost glow, with a throbbing, pulsing orange light. "What's it doing Mr. Watcher man?" Buffy's eyes widened.

"It's... well..." Christian tried to think, pouring through the memories of all the tomes and books he'd read. "Eyes." The fact suddenly came to him. "You have to poke out his eyes or he'll regenerate the injuries." He snapped seeing the wounds on his chest begin to move like they were trying to pull themselves back together.

"Oh great, could this get any grosser." Buffy scowled as she discarded the pen knife and picked up the near by half spade head. She ran forward and blindsided the demon with the flat metal stunning it slight, enough for it to raise its head a little so that she could jump, grip its head and press her thumbs forward into soft jelly like eye sockets.

The demon squealed and spasmed under her, sinking to the floor before the noises it made stopped and very slowly the body of it turned to a crumbly black mess, which was displaced like smoke when Buffy stepped through it.

"Here wipe your hands." Christian pulled off the light long sleeve top he was wearing over another white T-Shirt.

"Thank you." Buffy said taking it and immediately cleaned demon goo off herself. "Well that was." She paused. "Disgusting." She reached into her pocket and pulled out Christian's knife. "Thanks." She offered it back to him.

"Up until now it's only ever opened a can of spaghetti on a camping trip." He laughed as he took it and put it back in his pocket.

"Well its now been demonised." Buffy summed up. "Though I'm not sure that that's a good thing." She added stretching out her painful back and shoulders. "So come on Mr. Info-Man, would this like to eat toddlers and dogs?"

"Yes." Christian nodded moving over to where the corpse had disintegrated. "It's very tough as you saw but a very cautious demon, something small like dogs and kids would be right up it's alley for lunch."

"Doesn't explain why the police were waving a photo of Spike around though." Buffy pushed her hands into her pockets and followed Christian over to the goo pile.

"No." The Englishman shook his head. "Also these demons are very... rare." He admitted. "Seems odd it popped up here the same time as Spike."

"Any wacko ideas?" Buffy looked at him hopefully.

"Does Spike ever hang out with demons?" Christian put forward first.

"Occasionally, he had this friend Clem, he was a something or other demon, lots of flesh, huge ears, and they liked to eat wings, watch Passions and play poker together." Buffy relayed.

"So no history of evil demon friends?" Christian checked.

"Well only when he was like soulless and without chip. I mean he used to just side with whoever was the biggest and most likely to win, ya know." Buffy gave a shrug.

"Perhaps we should keep looking, in case he is in town?" Christian put forward the idea. "I'm sure knowing you looked everywhere you could would make you sleep better."

"It would." Buffy gave a nod, "Do you mind." She added.

"No, of course not. As long as you let me buy you something to eat as we look, you can't go all night with nothing." He pointed out the provision.

"You drive a hard bargain." Buffy gave him a bright smile. "Boy could Giles learn a thing or two from you." She added as they moved out together.

"Why thank you." Christian smiled brighter.

Madalene moved to the side of the bed and gently leaned down in the dark.

"Tara?" She whispered hoping she wouldn't disturb the redhead. Blue eyes opened as if the blonde had hardly been asleep.

"What's wrong Madalene?" She asked in a similar hushed tone, her body not moving particularly so as to minimise the disturbance to Willow.

"I-I-I'm sorry to wake you." Mads apologized immediately, in the low light it was hard to see that her cheeks were stained with tears and her body was still shaking a bit. "I had another flashback." She said in a whisper.

"About the accident?" Tara's voice was more worried as she eased herself free of Willow's gentle entanglement and turned, sitting up.

"No, before the accident..." Madalene sniffled a bit. "A memory about deciding to run away together."

"Let's go get coffee, and maybe you can tell me about it." Tara offered tenderly. Madalene nodded and headed to the door letting Tara follow in her own time.

"So either I need something that will help me remember anything, or all of this has to stop." Madalene sighed and rested her chin against her hand.

"Definitely." Tara nodded. "You can't keep going through this." She rubbed Madalene's hand sympathetically.

"It makes me wish I had a diary or something, to trigger what we did before." The Spellcaster admitted.

"What about if we got you a copy of the high school year books? Maybe actually touching the 'real thing' might help you remember more." Tara tried to think.

"Maybe I need to go... there." Madalene said in a soft reluctant voice.

"Go there?" Tara's eyes widened.

"You were here in Sunnydale, maybe being in the place, being surrounded by everything is the key to getting my memories back." Madalene explained the crazy idea that was rattling around in her head.

"Maybe, but now?" Tara shook her head. "Everything is too messed up right now Mads, with Buffy off on her 'thing' and Dawnie feeling so insecure, and you being so vulnerable." She shook her head further. "You shouldn't be going anywhere on your own right now, and I can't leave Willow right now." She added sadly.

"No of course you can't, oh Tara I never meant to suggest you should leave Willow to traipse around with me." Madalene shook her head. "You're place is here with her, taking care of her." She reached out and squeezed Tara's hand. "I'm just not so sure Buffy would object to me 'going away'." She added in her own sad tone.

"Buffy doesn't know a lot of things right now, she's confused and scared, and I think I understand that. If she was thinking clearly she wouldn't want you to be anywhere other than here, safe with the people who love you, with your family." Tara underlined. "I think this thing with Spike has affected her more than we know, she feels so responsible for him, and that is throwing off her normal rationality." She made more excuses for the Slayer. "And right now, she likes you a whole lot more than me." She added with a half hearted laugh.

"She's just adjusting, like you said." Madalene tried to make the blonde feel better in turn. "I think for so long she was in charge of so much when it came to Willow and everything, now that you're back it's a little hard to make that transition to not being the one in charge anymore, you know? The one thing that is sure Tara is that she is so happy to have you back and more importantly back with Willow."

"Maybe." Tara replied sounding anything but convinced. "But I'm not the point, you are, and right now I think you need to be here, with your family, with the people who love you, and can help you through the pain and confusion your flashbacks bring."

"It helps, being able to talk to you, it really helps." Madalene nodded. "I just wish they had more continuity."

"I can understand that at least my ones if my life with Willow were, you know, guided." Tara sympathised.

"Exactly, so far there's been the one of us leaving, then the bus crash." Madalene couldn't suppress a shiver. "The rest seem to be random, triggered by anything that's been spoken about or anything that I'm thinking." She laughed sadly. "I mean if I starting thinking about where Sarah's favourite place to think was, are we going to pop up in her room watching bad TV?"

Madalene thought she heard a noise and looked away from Tara to the window of the back door, a hard rain started to beat against it and then the other window in the kitchen but as she turned her head the world started to shift. The balance she had on the stool beneath her changed to be uneven as she found herself balanced on the edge of a high barn loft, her legs dangling down into the forty foot drop in the centre of the barn.

"Tara?" She reached to her side her hand grasping onto the blonde who was sat next to her.

"It's okay, I'm here." Tara assured her closing her hand tightly over Madalene's as she looked, slightly shaky around the hayloft. Just behind them stretched out as long as she could be was a tall, unquestionably striking red head, who's checked shirt and worn out jeans were covered with oil and grime, though the smile on her, and her white teeth shone like diamonds.

"Sarah." Madalene whispered turning as Tara did to see the tall woman who was relaxing behind them.

"I so don't see what's wrong with Joe, it's a nice strong boy's name, a boy named Joe would be kind, but loyal, good with his hands." There was an air of disappointment to Texas' tone as she spoke apparently to herself. "It's not like I suggesting Isaac or Godfrey." She added a light chuckle emanating from full lips.

"Texas, I didn't say that Joe was wrong, I just said it was well nothing special." The second Madalene came around from a wall of bailed straw trying to twist her hair to get the water out, the sound of the rain on the roof was getting louder and a crack of thunder sounded in the distance. "And I think you should see a child before you name it, get a sense for their being."

"Pink, kinda wrinkly and bawling, based on that we'd call all children, beetroot." Sarah continued to pout.

"You only see with your eyes don't you?" Madalene gave her a soft smile and moved over first to sit closer to Sarah on an overturned bucket.

"Mmmmm." She reached across closing her eyes as she lightly groped Madalene's leg. "Nope, see I'd call this, beautiful, sexy and mine, and see…" She opened her eyes. "I was right."

"Sexy?" The younger Mads blushed and played with her hair.

"She's such a flirt." Madalene leaned over to Tara her voice hushed.

Tara merely smiled watching carefully.

"Yeah, why do you always say that, like I'm crazy or something?" Sarah laughed and lay fully back down, tucking both hands up under her head. "So come on what do you wanna to call our rug rats?"

"Mmmmm." The other Madalene looked deep in thought. "If it's a girl, Tara." She smiled softly. "It just makes me think of peace and wisdom."

"Tara?" Sarah seemed to mull it over for a moment, "Yeah, Tara and Joe, good wholesome names, then Ben and Ashley." She continued. "And little Tommy, though he'll be a 'thing' that you decide we need when we're getting older and you want to recapture our youth."

"Are you trying to be a seer now?" Madalene moved to lie down beside her and laughed.

"Nope, you're the witch not me." Sarah shook her head and glanced at Madalene with a smile. "So come on, how many kids will we have?"

"How many would we have to have before I wouldn't be the focus of your attention?" Madalene gave her a slight smirk.

"Mmmmm 364." Texas replied with a laugh. "You'd still have a whole day all to yourself."

"You're funny." Madalene laughed and shook her head as she snuggled closer and for a long few minutes the two of them just cuddled in the hay.

"I loved her." The real-time Madalene who sat watching this whispered her voice deeply saddened.

"I think it's safe to say the feeling was more than mutual." Tara commented frowning at the sadness of her cousin as it contrasted so drastically to the happiness they were witnessing.

"So you wanna marry me before having all my kiddies?" Sarah leaned up on one arm turning to look at Madalene.

"We can't have kids without being married." Madalene gave her a scowl. "I want a big church wedding and a white dress."

"What? Won't you know clean jeans and a quick blessing here in the hay barn do?" Sarah teased.

"Depends, are you kissing me?" The dark haired teenager blinked her eyes at her girlfriend. "I mean all the romance of the storm, being here alone."

"I could be." Sarah's eyes twinkled. "I could make up a love poem, or sing you a love song if you liked."

"Please do." Madalene breathed out completely relaxed and happy.

"Which?" Texas smiled brightly.

"Love poem." Mads prompted her.

"Okay." Texas sat up. "God Damn it's a rainy day, but me and my honey are safe in the hay, she looks like a model, all wet and warm, I'm so damn lucky to have ever been born."

Madalene tried to keep a serious face but she broke out laughing.

"That was so cute." She kept giggling. "Do another."

"Okay, but this one is serious." Texas warned with a quirked eyebrow, clearing her throat she looked at her girlfriend. "My honey's name is Madalene, I love how she calls me hers, I wish I had money to buy her diamonds and wrap her up in furs, but all I can give her is my love, which is hers till the end of time, and my life will forever be complete, if I'm hers and she is mine."

"Wow." Tara arched both eyebrows. "We went from Cat in the Hat to Shakespeare."

"She could have been a real poet if she ever took it seriously." Madalene said biting her lip as she looked at the pair in the hay as they kissed. "But she didn't take anything seriously, other than us."

"She was young, you both were." Tara offered a reason.

"With so many dreams and so much hope." The Spellcaster turned away as if to give them privacy. "So many things ended in a split second."

"I'm sorry." Tara squeezed her hand tightly, glancing around to see that the scenery was speckling a little at the edges.

"Everything these have shown me, every single scene, shows me that I had love, I had found my heart, I had found my Willow." She looked at Tara with tears in her eyes. "The only bad thing that ever happened to us, was we both died. How is that fair? How am I supposed to just get over that?"

Tara shifted closer and pulled her into her arms, holding her tightly as the room shifted back to the Summers' house.

"I don't know." The blonde shook her head rocking her friend slightly. "I wish I had the answer, I really do."

Madalene hugged her back as she broke down in thick sobs.

-x-

Rather tired, Tara pulled herself up the stairs to the top floor of the house. She wasn't sure if her exhaustion was simply due to her recently uneven sleep schedule or if it was from the general pressure that existed in the house at the moment. There didn't seem a way to help anyone and with so many things going on it wasn't even possible to try to focus on any one problem.

There was always Willow, first on her list, but so many things with the beautiful redhead were things that would only start to heal and mend over along time.

Buffy… the Slayer was more distant than Tara had seen her since her return and from everyone's reactions to her it wasn't something the others were used to seeing either.

Added to that the fact that Madalene was now experiencing similar memory flashes as she had was more of a worry than a comfort. After all there wasn't going to be a happy ending, the Spellcaster's redhead hadn't lived through the bus crash, which left her cousin chasing after ghosts and memories.

'At least Dawn is sleeping.' Tara approached the teenager's door and very carefully turned the knob and opened it, making sure to be silent so that she could check on the teenager without waking her.

The blonde's jaw locked in panic when the sliver of light from the hall fell on the brunette's bed to reveal that it was still perfectly made and the bear that Tara had put near the pillows was still there with its head hung to one side like it was asking a question.

Her mind did a quick run down. Dawn had left about 8ish to go to Janice's, she had promised she'd be home at the latest by 11 but it was obvious that for whatever reason, Dawn hadn't fulfilled that promise.

Her moment of panic extended as she wasn't sure what to do or who could help her. Buffy was off hunting Spike, probably miles away by now. She'd just managed to get Madalene to fall into a dreamless exhausted sleep for the first time in days. Willow was, much to her defeat, medicated to sleep only because with the entire trauma of Spike being loose there hadn't been any other choice.

"Xander." She whispered as she turned and saw the group picture of them at graduation on the hallway wall. She backtracked downstairs to the living room and hitting the speed dial listened to it starting to ring.

"Buf?" Xander's sleepy voice came on the line after a half dozen rings.

"Xander, it's not Buffy, it's Tara." The blonde gave no actual details her mind still running at a million miles a minute.

"Tara…" Xander immediately sounded awake, his Scoobie ability to do so on a moments notice kicking in. "What's going on? What's wrong? Has Buffy found Spike? Is something wrong with Willow?"

"No." Tara gave the general negative answer to all of the carpenter's questions. "That is… not that I've heard… Buffy, I mean." She said more than incoherently.

"Tara, hang in I'll come right over okay?" Xander tried to simplify things hearing the still familiar sound of panic in the blonde's voice. Death had changed some things, but not others.

"Yes, Yes." She repeated. "That's what I wanted."

"Okay hold tight. I'm less than three minutes from you." Xander assured her and hung up the phone.

"I'm here, I'm here." Xander raced in the front door with his crossbow levelled. "All you vamps better back it up." He warned the empty hallway.

On impulse, Tara who was sat on the second step of the stairs put up her hands in surrender.

"Tara, are you okay?" Xander lowered it and moved closer to her. "What's going on?"

"I've… I"ve…" Tara looked up blinking suddenly tear filled eyes. "I've lost Dawn."

"Lost Dawn?" Xander's eyes went wide as well. "Lost as in a horde of demons came and stole her or she's just gone missing with no known horde?"

"Gone missing, that is… I told her she could go out, things were so tense here. She said she was going to White Castle with Janice but that was before nine and now…" She glanced at the clock. "It's past two."

"Have you called Janice?" Xander put the crossbow down to rest against the wall and moved to the phone picking up the small book next to it.

"I didn't… know… her surname." Tara shook her head. "This is all my fault. I was so worried about getting Willow safe and sleepy and then with Madalene having her breakdown after her nightmares I didn't think to check earlier. Buffy is going to kill me, and I've done dead already."

"Okay Tara, hold on." Xander came back with the cordless phone and the book. "First of all, if all this was going on why didn't you call me earlier? I've been eating cheetos and watching a bad rerun of Star Trek." He sat down next to her. "Secondly, Buffy never remembers their last names either so if you go to D… you have a list of Dawn friends." He turned to show her. "And third, is Mads okay? Oh and four Buffy won't kill you, Dawn is a good girl, and she's smart, I bet she's just sleeping over somewhere cause she's upset about everything that's going on."

"Madalene is sleeping, I stayed with her until I was sure, um, she wasn't dreaming. I'm sorry I didn't call you." She looked up at Xander and blinked her tears down her cheeks.

"No worries, just next time save me from myself and the Sci Fi channel okay?" He smiled at her and put his arm around her back giving her a one armed hug. "Let's see what Janice has to say." He dialled the number and engaged in a short conversation with what was obviously one of Janice's parent's before there was a long break and then another short conversation. "Okay apparently she left White Castle with Lisa around 10:30 to go to her house to watch a movie." He looked at the list. "Damn, we don't have her number but I know what house she's in, a buddy of mine did some plumbing for them when they moved in."

"Why didn't she call? Oh Xander." Tara leaned heavily on the young man's shoulder. "We've shut her out so much."

"Yeah I know, but she was a kid for a lot of it." He tried to offer some explanation squeezing her with his arm again trying to comfort her. "Hey I bet she fell asleep watching the movie and is flaked out with a half full bowl of popcorn and an empty thing of ice cream." He tried to give the rosy explanation. "How about I leave you here to look after our other two beauties and I'll go bring her home?"

"What if she's not there?" Tara bit her lip.

"Then I go looking for her." Xander stood up and picked up his crossbow. "This is Dawn and don't worry, I've been a Scooby for along time. I know where all the good hiding spots are."

"I'll make some cookies." Tara rubbed her temple slightly. "Dawn likes cookies."

"So do I." He winked at her. "I'll call as soon as I know anything." He vowed to her.

"Thank you Xander." Tara nodded.

"No worries, this is what I'm good at." He smiled at her. "Make some tea or something, I'll have her back in no time." He confidently strode out of the house towards his car. "God help me, Dawn you better be at Lisa's." He swore under his breath as he pulled out of the driveway.

Christian stopped and leaned against the front gate of the second cemetery. They had already covered most of the town. The Slayer had wiped out a least a dozen vampires and various demons that had probably been holed up in the area for years harmlessly.

"I think it is safe to assume that Spike has moved on." He said sadly.

"But that doesn't answer any of my questions." Buffy scowled. "The main one being, why the police were waving a Photoshop of Spike around? I'll just have to go and talk to them."

"Oh no, hold on." Christian moved to block her. "It's nearly three in the morning, and they are notoriously unhelpful at this time of night. Let's get some hotel rooms, I'll go and try to charm some information in the morning?" He offered.

"A hotel?" Buffy arched her eyebrows. "Do I look like I fit a purse in this outfit?" She motioned to the tight leathers and top she wore.

"I have a wallet, which has a card in it that will get us a place to sleep and if we're lucky some souvenir t-shirts to sleep in." Christian smiled at her. "I'm the watcher remember, you do the killing, I do the other things like book rooms." He motioned her to head to the car.

"Ex-watcher, remember that's the reason that I like you. You're more ex-y and less watcher-y. Not that you're my ex really, but you know what I mean." Buffy moved towards the car.

"I'm quite happy to be your ex-watcher." Christian laughed lightly and followed her.

The sudden soft sound of chimes through the main floor of the Evan's house made Dawn turn a bit in her now uncomfortable spot on one end of the long sectional couch.

"Eehhhh, Buffy turn off the alarm." She groaned trying to remain asleep.

"Alarm?" Lisa jumped and managed to completely flop off the side of the couch landing on her back on the floor. "I'm up I'm up, I'll get dressed." She blinked and then looked confused as the first thing she looked at was the side of the couch.

The door chimes again rang softly.

"Hellhounds… coming." Dawn bolted up with the second chimes and scanned around the room a little scared but then calmed. "Lisa, what are you doing on the floor? Wait… what time is it?" She tried to find a clock, looking to the blue screen of the TV. "Oh crap, Buffy's going to kill me."

"I think we fell asleep." Lisa pushed up and straightened down her t-shirt that had rolled up around her ribs. "And I think that's the doorbell. Oh crap, I bet it wakes Mom."

Almost as soon as the words had left Lisa's mouth the soft sound of skippered feet resounded from the stairs.

"I have to hide." Dawn said irrationally.

"Hide? Why would you…" Lisa was cut off by the sound of the lounge door opening.

"You two stay in here." From the door Lisa's mother smiled at her and Dawn. "I'll see who that is. It's probably a neighbour needing something." She flashed them both another smile.

"Do your neighbours often come over this time of night?" Dawn asked softly as she moved to the large window behind the couch and tried to move the curtains to see outside to see who it was.

"In the city, all the time." She watched with a slight frown. "Young people do their thing and then find they've run out of sugar at four in the morning. I'm always the nice lady that gave them a cup."

"Mrs. Evans, whoever it is, don't invite them in unless you know them okay? Even if they need help, we can get them help with them outside." Dawn tried to find some normal sounding way of warning her. "We have weird people in Sunnydale."

"Everywhere has weird people dear." Still smiling the older woman backtracked to the door and pulled it open not even pausing to put the safety chain across.

"Hi, good evening." Xander stood up straight. "My name is Alexander Harris, I was wondering if Dawn Summers was here or if you knew where she was?" He gave her a charming smile. "She's my cousin." He tried not to act shocked that she had just pulled the door open.

"Oh Mr. Harris, come in. Let me guess, the girl's forgot to tell you they were gazing at Johnny Depp." She stood aside and beckoned Xander in.

"She did, but I knew that she'd be somewhere safe." He smiled at the woman as he kept one hand behind his back to the stake and dagger he had tucked down his pants under his coat. "I hope she didn't eat you out of popcorn, she can be quite the nibbler." He smiled more.

"I always buy more closer to the weekends." Mrs. Evans shook her head to the worry. "Dawn? Dawn dear. Looks like someone's missing their little cousin."

Dawn reluctantly peaked out of the living room and then breathed a sigh of relief.

"Xander!" She scowled at him. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to take you home Dawnie." Xander nodded and motioned with his head to the doorway.

"One second." Dawn looked back at Lisa. "Thanks, the movie was great, I'm sorry I fell asleep on you." She gave her a crooked smile.

"Not a problem, I'm sorry I let you fall asleep, really Mr. Harris…" She looked at Xander. "We didn't mean this to happen."

"It's okay, I was young not so long ago." He smiled at Lisa. "Dawn we should get you home though." He looked again at the teenager.

"It was nice having you over Dawn." Mrs. Evans smiled at her. "Though next time I'll wake you up, not just put a blanket on you two." She laughed lightly.

"Bye." Dawn smiled at Lisa and then followed Xander to the car. "You totally freaked me out, I thought vamps had come knocking and they have no idea what Sunnydale is like."

"I freaked you out?" Xander looked at the teenager. "No one told me your friend Lisa and her Mom were demons?"

"Demons? They aren't demons!" Dawn reached across to where he was now beside her in the car and hit him on the arm. "They are just really nice people."

"Dawn, she opened her door and 2:42 in the morning and asked me to come inside." Xander squeaked. "I thought for one horrible moment I was too late and she'd already eaten you!"

"Xander, don't exaggerate." Dawn rolled her eyes. "She opened her door 'cause she thought you were a neighbour who needed sugar… yes she is THAT nice." She underlined.

"Someone needs to tell her, she lives in Sunnydale now. There's a reason the houses are so cheap… anyone looking for sugar at this time in the morning wants it with your blood on the side!" He pointed out.

"Is Buffy pissed?" The teenager asked as they drove off.

"Buffy isn't home yet. Tara however when I last saw her was sitting on the stairs CRYING because she thought you'd run away or been eaten by sugar lending demons." He explained.

"I'm sorry, I just fell asleep and no one woke me." Dawn frowned at the idea of Tara crying.

"I think it's just been a bad night." Xander worked a little to make Dawn feel slightly better but without wanting to comfort her too much, after all she deserved a little flack, she should have called, this was Sunnydale. "You know maybe you could tidy your room tomorrow or something?"

"Okay." She nodded.

"Xander?" Tara pushed up from the stairs that she had returned to sitting on after making a batch of cookies that were in the oven cooking. Her head hurt, she felt a little sick and slightly dizzy from worry. As soon as she had seen the flash of Xander's cars headlights on the large lounge window she had clicked into hyper drive again and was already shaking with anxiety when the carpenter's keys sounded in the lock.

"Home again, safe and sound, party of two." Xander came in and Dawn came in behind him. "Mmm cookies smell good." He smiled.

"Hi." Dawn said sheepishly.

"Oh Dawnie!" Tara ran forward and enveloped the young teenager in a tight loving hug.

"I'm sorry…" Dawn hugged her back. "I was watching a movie at Lisa's, I fell asleep, she did too and her mom just put blankets on us, she didn't know I was supposed to be home."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Tara took a step back and examined Dawn quickly, lightly patting down her arms.

"Had lots of popcorn." She gave a lopsided smile. "Lisa's mom is almost as nice as you, she made it with extra butter for us."

Breathing out Tara smiled.

"I'm so cross with you." She tried her best annoyed Tara voice but the smirk she wore made it less than convincing.

"I know, and you have every right to be." Dawn nodded. "I promise to waste tomorrow cleaning my room, your way." She offered sheepishly.

"My way?" Tara arched her eyebrow. "Can I watch?" She teased.

"If you want." Dawn stuck out her tongue. "Though you missed the funny bit. Xander thought Mrs. Evans was a demon because she was so nice." She grabbed Tara's hand and pulled her towards the kitchen for cookies.

"Hey, hey!" Xander followed. "She was nice, too nice." He defended himself as they settled down to have a late night celebration snack.

Christian knocked on room 203 louder and waited. He'd already tried a polite soft knock and a moderate pleasant knock but there had been no response.

The door gradually opened and Buffy dressed only in the long sleep t-shirt they'd managed to buy the night before at a corner store, her hair tussled, her eyes still crusty, appeared blinking at him.

"Good morning." Christian smiled at her. "Sorry to wake you, but I have information so…" He held out a large bag. "Clothes, toiletries. I'm sorry I didn't know your shampoo or conditioner preference but I tried to get something suitable." He smiled. "Why don't you get showered and I'll meet you in the café in the lobby for breakfast and debriefing?"

"Okay." Buffy paused and stuck her head further out of the doorway and looked right and left down the corridor. "Who are you? What did you do with Christian? The nice unwatchery kind of guy?"

"I ate him." Christian laughed. "And I'm not being watchery, I'm being helpful. That's the type of guy I am. If I was a watcher I'd have brought you a black t-shirt, a pair of ugly jeans and some bargain soap to wash with, but I tried to think more like a beautiful woman." He winked at her.

"I like a man who's not afraid to embrace his inner woman." Buffy took the bag and looked inside it. Shaking it a little to get a good look at the toiletries he'd chosen.

"Oh and…" He blushed a little. "I guessed at the underwear sizes."

"I'd be more freaked if you'd have come in and checked." Buffy admitted with a smile.

"Well let's hope I'm a good judge." He smiled back. "See you in the café." He stepped back towards the elevator.

"It might take me awhile." Buffy warned as she stepped back inside her room.

Christian was sitting in a booth in the café, nursing his second cup of coffee and reading his way through a few local and national papers when the Slayer finally appeared.

"Good morning again." He smiled when she slid into her seat. "You look like you were able to work miracles with the little supplies I brought."

"I think that was a compliment." Buffy slid into the booth smiling.

"It was." He nodded. "You look beautiful." He said softly.

"Why thank you." Buffy grinned more. "So what do you have to tell me about our little problem?"

"I met with a very helpful Captain Cross this morning, who explained that the only reason they have Spike's composite up is that about two hours before the murder's he was rooted out of a neighbour's back shed for being a vagrant. They just want him for questioning, they have no real leads." He explained.

Buffy audibly sighed.

"I also had him check car thefts and it seems that a older model car with heavily tinted windows was stolen from a bar parking lot a few blocks away not long after the cop reports he escorted Spike on his way out of the shed. Seems he could have likely been long gone before the unfortunate events even took place." He relayed frowning more.

"That's good." Buffy nodded quickly but then shook her head. "I mean no it's bad, it's bad that he's around." She tried to clarify.

"It does possibly answer the question of his involvement but it also leads to the question of who then committed the crime." He nodded.

"You're definitely ruling out the pen knife guy?" Buffy checked.

"I made some calls, if the child and dog had been alone, say wandered into the woods then the pen knife demon would be a possibility, But this was done on the home property and two adults were killed, the father was a muscular man according to the Captain. The demon would have been easily scared off in the situation. It only continued to attack us because we had invaded its nest." He nodded.

"I don't suppose you and your sophisticated English ways managed to get any details about the attack from the oh so helpful policeman, you know like, possible weapons, precise time of attack." She asked.

"They are estimating that they murders occurred about 8:30 the night before we heard of it o the news. No obvious injuries like neck ruptures, but he did comment that they had not recovered all of the woman or the little boy, suggesting whatever attacked them was hungry." He grimaced. "They believe the dog was killed first, then the wife and husband, the child was last. They've pieced together that the child was dead before his body was dragged outside, almost as if something was finishing its meal but got… interrupted and ran, though they have no witnesses at all. Nothing was stolen and there was no sign of any other domestic crime. All questioning has lead to the family being normal, with no enemies or disputes."

"Poor kid." Buffy frowned and shook her head. "It's just so wrong. I mean it's all wrong but kids you know? Makes it worse."

"I know and forgive me this question but… does Spike have a history of liking to attack children or eating flesh instead of drinking blood?" He asked and Buffy shook her head immediately.

"But he's crazy." She admitted. "I don't think anyone knows him right now."

"It's best to keep him as a suspect. Perhaps it's best to head back to Sunnydale, check all the regular sources of information. Maybe someone can get us a contact more familiar with the demonage of this area. Then we'll have more of a starting point." He suggested.

"Willy." Buffy looked up with bright eyes.

"Sorry?" Christian tried not to choke on his coffee.

"It's a guy, he runs a bar, a bar for demons actually. He's a little odd. But if anyone knows anything it will be Willy." Buffy explained.

"Oh, now that makes more sense to this English boy." He smiled. "We can't travel on empty stomachs, so let's get you something to eat." He motioned for the waitress.

Lisa looked down at the small bouquet of flowers in her hand and swallowed, she shifted them into her left hand and wiped her right hand on her jeans, surprised at how sweaty her palm was. Taking another breath she reached up and pressed the door bell.

"Hello Lisa." Madalene pulled the door open when she'd seen the teenager through the keyhole. "Come in, how are you?" She asked smiling.

"Uh… I'm okay." She said quickly.

"Dawn is up in her room, she's been cleaning it all day. You can just head up if you like." Madalene pointed to the stairs.

"No, it's ah… oh okay." Lisa shook her head, her eyes darting around a little. "Where's everyone else?"

"Willow is having a nap, Tara is poking around in the garden and I was just making some lemonade, do you want some?" Madalene asked seeing the teenager's nervousness.

"No, thank you. Do you know where Buffy is?" She asked still not calming.

"Actually she's been out of town since yesterday afternoon." Madalene filled in urging her with a wave to come into the kitchen. "Have a seat." She said as she moved to stir the lemonade again and poured her a glass anyway. "Do you need to talk to her about something?" She tried to figure out what was bothering the young blonde.

"No, that is…" The young girl frowned. "I thought I did, but now I'm confused."

"Is something wrong Lisa?" Madalene tried to ask her without any threat or 'adult' condemnation. "Are the flowers for Dawn?" She asked smiling at them. "They're lovely."

"No, they're not." Lisa shook her head staring at the flowers as if unaware they were in her hand. "They're for Buffy."

"Oh!" Madalene said trying not to draw any conclusions. "As I said I'm afraid she's away on business, I'm not sure when she'll be back exactly."

"No, no oh!" Lisa caught the slight flare of Madalene's eyes. "They're not for Buffy because I like Buffy or anything like that." She shook her head quickly. "And now I know she's not here they're definitely not for Buffy."

"So they're not for Buffy, and they're not for Dawn. Who are they for?" She tried to clarify everything.

"I don't know." Lisa frowned. "You maybe?"

"Lisa, why don't we start from the beginning? Why did you buy the flowers for whoever they are for?" Madalene sat down.

"My mom suggested it would be a good idea." Lisa tried to be more coherent.

"Well buying someone flowers is usually a good idea, to say hi, or get well, or thanks, or even I like you." Madalene nodded.

Lisa was prevented from saying anything else momentarily as the back door opened and Tara walked in pulling off her pair of ladybug gardening gloves and straw hat.

"Lisa!" She greeted the teenager with a smile. "How is the popcorn hangover?"

"Fine." Lisa seemed suddenly to relax a little, looking between the flowers and Tara. "These are for you." She offered them.

Madalene chuckled lightly and moved to get Tara a glass of lemonade.

"Why thank you Lisa." Tara took them and gently sniffed. "Though you didn't have too, Dawn is as much too blame as you, more than you." The blonde stressed.

"I think this is one of those things for which I am blissfully unaware, so I am going to continue watering my herb garden, excuse me." Madalene smiled at them both and headed outside.

"I just wanted you to know that I really was sorry." Lisa looked down a little as Tara moved and took a vase dropping the flowers into it lightly.

"Well thank you very much." Tara turned and picked up her glass. "Dawn is upstairs tidying her room, why don't you pop up and take her a glass of lemonade? I think there are some cookies left if you want to take home a couple."

"Okay." Lisa gave a quick nod and rather than pouring Dawn a fresh glass she just took the one she had and headed hastily to the stairs.

When the door to the bar opened letting in a little of the late afternoon sun, Willy automatically looked up and then groaned. He put his head down and cleaned the glass in his hand hoping by some grace of some God that the small blonde woman would just pull one of his patrons out into the daylight and go away.

However Buffy strode confidently up to the bar.

"Hi Willy." She gave a tight smile. "I bet I'm just who you want to see."

"Um will you break my teeth again if I say no?" He asked her timidly.

"Maybe, the dentistry looks great." Buffy commented.

"I know a good Grewal demon, he does a lot of dental work." Willy gave her a tight smile. "Okay Slayer spit it out, what do you want to know? I swear I didn't know there was someone trafficking Cruchious seeds in town until this morning." He braced for the punch that was bound to be flying at him.

"I want to talk about Spike." Buffy tone and demeanour didn't even flinch.

"Oh, poor bugger. He was in here a couple of days ago, ranting and raving like a loon. Rumour is he's got his soul back but worse than that, before he left town, well left town before he came back with the soul he apparently 'borrowed' some gem of something from someone and they are very upset about it. They've hired a pack of feral assassination demons to dust him." Willy spilled the well known demon knowledge. "Oh so it's true they trashed your Watcher's house. Dumb boys, I mean I was paid to toss some meat for them in the back alley but I didn't have nothing to do with the hit on the old man's house I swear."

"Someone is trying to kill Spike?" Buffy clarified the main point carefully.

"Yes." Willy nodded. "He stole from them."

"I'm guessing this isn't something that could be made up with a few kittens?" Buffy frowned uneasily.

"Um not unless you had a 1000 head of kitten, and Spike's never been that rich a man." Willy snorted out a laugh. "The gem was some sorta power font conductor or something and I don't know if you've ever seen a feral assassin but they are mean, and ugly and… hungry." He shivered.

"I was about to come to that. You mentioned something about meat? Do I want to know details?" She placed her hand on her hip carefully.

"Like I said the meat was delivered with instructions to keep it chilled and throw it in the back alley four nights ago to feed them. That's all I got paid to do, I didn't get the meat myself. Though between you and me Slayer, I think I saw a hand in there." He grimaced.

Buffy screwed up her nose in disgust.

"How many are there?" She demanded.

"Four, maybe five. They go in packs, like dogs." He shrugged.

"That's everything you know?" The Slayer stared at the barkeep.

"Isn't that enough?" Willy asked her.

"Don't get smart!" Buffy warned leaning over the bar and landing a direct hit of her fist onto his nose.

"Oh crap." He managed to swear once the shock of the blow was over and he put the towel up to his bleeding nose. "You've broke it so many times I might need surgery." He scowled at her.

"That's for the seeds, whatever they are." She gave a shrug. "This…" She slid her hand along the bar top scattering glasses and bowls of unrecognizable snacks smashing to the floor. "Is for delivering gross unidentified meats to dog demons who are trying to kill my fr…" She stopped herself. "Spike."

"The guy with the seeds is down at Dock 18, bring two kittens it'll get you in to see him." Willy tried to get her to leave before she trashed the entire bar.

"Pray I don't have to be back!" Buffy turned and stalked out deliberately crunching broken glass beneath her boots.

Moving directly to the car that was parked a little way down the street Buffy got in and slammed the door.

"Drive." She instructed Christian.

"That didn't go well?" He checked as he pulled away from the curb.

"It never goes well, usually for Willy." Buffy brushed a splash of whiskey from her pants.

"Where do you need to go now?" He asked her as he got to a four way stop.

"Lucy's pet store." Buffy instructed. "As you drive you can tell me what Cruchy-ious seeds are?"

"Cruchious seeds?" Christian corrected and saw her nod. "Very bad news. It's a demon drug, fairly new. You could say the equivalent of demon and vampire ecstasy, except it doesn't make you crave sex as much as crave even more to kill things, more violently with much torture." He frowned.

"Well they couldn't be a drug that made them just sit around in corners reminiscing about the old times now could they?" Buffy sighed.

"So why the pet store?" He questioned.

"We need kittens." Buffy sighed and shook her head. "Don't worry nothing bad happens to the kittens, I usually have to kill the thing I give them too before the end of the evening. They get given to yet another of Dawn's school friends who want kittens."

"Oh… so you've dealt in kittens often then?" He said reluctantly.

"Don't even." Buffy shook her head. "Anyway this is just a preview our main problem is a pack of feral assassination demons."

"Oh." Christian said the small word again as he pulled into the mall parking lot.

Christian hummed along to the song on the radio and tapped his hand on the steering wheel as he glanced again at the alleyway a hundred yards across from him that Buffy had gone down about five minutes before.

His gaze shifted sideways for a moment to see where a very large container was being lifted carefully onto a ship in the distance before his attention was drawn back when an audible but not distinguishable series of thuds could be heard that echoed in and around the buildings.

He looked immediately back to the alley and turned off the radio. He didn't let his gaze move and within a minute there was a series of six large echoing thuds before things went deathly quiet. The birds had already been scared away and it seemed that everything on the dock had stopped.

He was a little surprised but relieved when he saw Buffy come striding out of the alleyway wiping her hands on one of the brick walls before she jogged to the car. He watched her get in and just looked at her.

"Buffy, what happened in there?" He questioned looking back at the alley and then something higher caught his eye and leaning forward to get a better view he saw the billowing smoke pouring out of the roof of the building that Buffy had identified as the one she wanted. Another series of thuds sounded and another 2 buildings lit on fire. "Buffy, the warehouse is on fire?"

"Is it?" Buffy calmly fastened her seatbelt and settled into the chair.

"Yes, it is… was there a gas leak? We should call someone." He leaned right forward against the steering wheel to see how the flames shot about 25foot in the air.

"We will." Buffy looked at him waiting for him to pull away. "If no one else has within the next hour."

"But… by then everything will be down to coals." Christian couldn't take his eyes off the flames.

"That is the idea." Buffy blinked at Christian and clued him in. "You know plants and fire, drugs go poof." She watched his face for any inclination.

"Oh right… yes good plan." He finally gave himself a little shake and putting the car in reverse carefully pulled out of the parking spot and started to drive away at a nice normal pace. "Wait!" He slammed on the brakes. "Where are the kittens?"

"Oh for Godsake." Buffy flicked off her seat belt pushed open the car and ran off.

"Buffy!?" Christian tried to follow out her door and found himself choking on the seat belt.

In less than a minute Buffy reappeared running at a furious pace carrying with her a large box. She ran all the way to the car and threw open the back door, putting down the large meowing box carefully.

"I hope you know where to find loving homes for 14 kittens. They hadn't had time to eat their wares." Buffy reached into the box and pulled out a cute slightly sooty ginger kitten. "I think we should call this one Christian, he looks a bit like you." She got back into the front seat and held the little kitten close to Christian's face.

"Then I guess he lives with me from now on." He smiled. "You're unbelievable you know that right?" He started to drive off again the awe in his voice.

"Thank you I think. Why is it with you English people whether you mean something as a compliment or a vague criticism?" Buffy cuddled the kitten on her lap trying to wipe off some of the soot that smudged across its nose.

"Let me clarify then. As I said I have read some of the reports on your more famous accomplishments but I have been with you less than 24 hours and you have killed 8 vampires, 5 rare demons, stopped someone from trafficking seeds and killed an unknown number of unknown demons to do that. Add to that the fact that you in the process took the time to save 14 kittens from being eaten, and I'm afraid Buffy all I can say is that every day your accomplishments should be written down because you are quite simply amazing." He smiled at her.

"Here that sooty…" She lifted the kitten to eye level. "I'm amazing and you're stinky." She put him back down making a face. "So next stop your place to read up on our friendly assassins, who are next on my list of amazing conquests."

"As you wish milady." Christian began to drive with more speed.

"I could try her phone again." Willow came into the lounge where Tara and Madalene were sitting watching a movie. "I mean it might be on now." She held the cordless in one hand and chewed lightly on her lip.

"If you want to sweetie." Tara barely glanced in her lover's direction. If she was honest she would have to admit she hadn't even heard Willow's question she was feeling tired, and still slightly nauseous from the whole saga of the last 24hrs."

"Okay." Willow moved back into the hallway dialling the numbers to see if Buffy would answer and then dialling them again.

No one disturbed the two witches in the lounge until a few minutes later when Dawn came all the way in standing near the TV.

"Tara, did you really say Willow could keep calling Buffy's cell over and over?" She questioned the blonde.

"What Dawnie?" Tara blinked at her with a confused look on her face.

"Willow's been dialling Buffy's cell over and over to see if it gets turned on, after doing it for an hour I told her to ask you before she called again. She said you said she could." Dawn explained. "I think she's getting edgy about Buffy being missing and I don't think obsessing about the phone is helping."

"Oh Goddess I didn't even think." Tara shook her head. "Um I'll go and sort it." She gave Dawn a soft smile.

"Tara, actually… why don't you go get a nap and Dawn and I will keep Willow company, keep her mind off it okay?" Madalene offered her cousin looking to Dawn who nodded her agreement to do so.

"No, no I'm fine." Tara shook her head and pushed up off the couch wobbling just slightly as the world shifted.

*Please Tara, if she needs you I will wake you I promise.* Madalene hummed to her.

"Tara, you need to sleep." Dawn added seeing the wobble and moving over to help her.

"Well maybe just a little nap." Tara smiled softly at both of them. "Wake me up before supper though."

"Okay." Dawn nodded. "Can you get upstairs?" She checked.

"I'm just tired my legs still work." The blonde assured her.

"Okay, maybe we can get prepping for dinner with Willow? She likes to cook." Dawn asked Madalene who was now off the couch as well having turned off the DVD and TV.

"Sounds like a great idea." She smiled and followed the teenager to the kitchen.

"Excuse me, you are not British so you cannot give me an opinion on the validity of English Comedy shows." He gave Buffy a mock scowl. "That your Public television only shows 20 year old episodes of Morcamb and Wise is not a truly current judge of our comedy."

"It's too middle aged men performing some strange dance while making breakfast. Nobody laughs when I make breakfast." She motioned to herself. "Well okay they do but not in a good way."

Christian laughed at the comment as he switched the channel.

"I don't get these animal shows, when they first put Animal planet on the air I thought how can a show solely about animals be watched as much as it will need to be profitable ever survive? And low and behold when I am bored and watching TV I always resort to the CNN or animal planet." He laughed again but at himself this time.

"Animal planet is full of things that nobody ever knows, I used to think it was just for nerds, no offence meant." She paused and looked at Christian. "But then I actually sat down one Saturday and watched it with Willow…" She stopped after mentioning the redhead's name. "What time is it?" She asked suddenly.

"Um…" He looked at his watch. "Six eighteen." He said precisely.

"Oh no." She frowned hard and looked around the room.

"Let me get you the phone." He seemed to read her mind, he walked back to the bedroom and then arrived out with the cordless handset. "Call home, I'll gather some of the weapons I do have."

"Thanks." She gave him a smile and took the phone. "I mean it." She added as he went to leave.

"You're very welcome." He smiled at her

"I realize this must be crazy." She smiled again. "But this is life with a real slayer."

"I know now why I didn't want to stay in England, and wanted to be here where the action was." He smiled back at her and then disappeared down the hall.

Buffy quickly took a deep breath and dialled the number only to find it had barely rung before it was answered.

"BUFFY?" Willow's panicked voice came on the phone.

"Hey Will." Buffy kept her voice light and cheerful.

"Where are you? Are you hurt? Are you okay? Are you coming home now? Did someone find Spike? Can you come home now?" Willow's words went a mile a minute.

"I'm at Christian's. We're on the road to finding Spike, but it's become a little more complicated." Buffy tried to keep her answers honest and clear for her friend. "But I can tell you before anything else he wasn't the one who hurt those people in the news."

"But you haven't found him? How complicated? Can't you come home for a minute? You need your weapons, you need research." Willow didn't really calm much.

"Will, are you okay?" Buffy asked concerned.

"I'm worried, it's been hours and you didn't call, you weren't here when I went to bed, I had to have a whole brown pill, they make me jumpy, and then you weren't here when I got up and no one knew where you were, it isn't right, it's not normal." Willow's voice notched up a bit.

"Willow… maybe you should give me the phone." Dawn was heard in the background trying to get to talk to her sister.

"Will is Dawn there?" Buffy caught her sister's voice.

"Yes right here, talk to her." Willow turned suddenly and thrust the phone at Dawn who took it from her.

"Hi Buffy." Dawn said more calmly. "I'm glad you phoned. When are you coming home? Nowish?" She checked.

"What's going on… why is Willow so…" Buffy asked in a quiet voice.

"You have been… AWOL for 26 hours." Dawn's voice went lower at the end as well. "You need to come home and spend time with her. You're messing up her schedule."

"Coming home right now isn't really an option right now Dawn." Buffy said from between tightly pursed lips.

"Buffy, she needs to see you're okay." Dawn pleaded with her.

"Okay Dawn." Buffy said through a tight sigh. "I'll come home, but I can't stay." She added clearly.

"I'll tell her, bye." Dawn hung up before her sister could add any other provisions.

Buffy just stared at the phone for a moment and then switched it off. It wasn't long after that Christian came back out of the bedroom with a small weighted duffle bag.

"Small sword, an axe and two daggers." He made the small offering. "Are you okay?"

"No." Buffy shook her head. "I've just been railroaded into a detour." She frowned.

"Is everything okay at home?" Christian asked concerned.

"Wills not having a good day." Buffy replied tightly.

"Oh. Well then it's best if you go touch base with her, it'll probably do wonders to help her calm down." Christian said sympathetically.

"Yes." Buffy continued to frown. "Just when I was thinking I was wrong about the judgements I was making about the people around me." She shook her head.

"In what way?" He asked not sure about her tone.

"They just had to keep her calm and happy… it's not even been 48hrs. It's hardly been 24." She scowled more.

"Couldn't it just be your friend is worried about you?" Christian said softly. "And in her brain that gets expressed a little differently?"

"No." Buffy said after a long moment. "She's got her forever back; I'm just the temporary whenever that sort of fitted in."

"Buffy, remember when you asked me if I thought you were crazy about the whole feeling responsible for Spike thing and I said I understood cause I had a friend who only seemed to pop up when she needed help, the part I didn't mention is that she's bipolar." He smiled sadly. "Not saying Willow is the same, but sometimes it's not the rest of the world that matters, it's the one thing that isn't the way it should be that they get fixated on. She might have her forever, but that doesn't mean she still doesn't need her best friend too."

"Bipolar?" Buffy frowned. "I think I know a bit about that, or at least heard of it."

"We were dating in my second year, she woke up one morning and decided the colour purple was evil and we had to thrown everything purple out. It wasn't that the rest of the world was fine, it was that the purple needed to be eradicated." He gave her a sadder smile.

"That must have been hard." Buffy chose her words very carefully.

"At times it was yes." He nodded. "So I don't want to sound like know it all guy but I'd make a guess with Willow that it's not about what everyone else does, it's about you." He smiled at her. "Which I would take as a complete compliment."

"It's just I don't want to let the trail get cold." Buffy frowned.

"A few minutes isn't going to put us that far back." He assured her.

"Okay, but you stay in the car and keep the engine running." She gave the instructions. "Deal?"

"Sounds reasonable to me." He winked at her.

Buffy was barely half way up the walk to the door when Willow pulled it open and stayed stood in it waiting rather impatiently.

"Hey Will, wasn't expecting a guard of honour." Buffy tried to keep her smile even and bright.

"I saw the car, I hoped it was you then I saw it was you. You're not hurt?" She said almost as if her brain was checking off possible bad things.

"Not so much as a scratch." Buffy quickly assured her. "Hey, you're in sloppy stripy pants?" She glanced at the green and cream striped pj's bottom that Willow had worn all day. "Did I miss out on a sloppy pants day?"

"Yes." Willow said scowling at her. "Why didn't you have your phone on? I called you."

"Battery must be dead." Buffy held her hands up in mock surrender.

"I have a spare for it." Willow walked back in glancing around to make sure Buffy was following.

Buffy of course made sure that she stayed close to wherever Willow moved.

"Here." Willow took it out of the charger and handed it to the blonde. "So what are you chasing? Does it know where Spike is?"

"It's a demon pack, like a pack of wild dogs only more demon and less dogs." Buffy explained the basics.

"Oh, do you know a name? I can research if you know a name." Willow looked at her and then at the computer.

"That's my Will." Buffy smiled and handed her the brief summary of the demon that Christian had made earlier. "Anything you could find out would be helpful Will."

"I'll get everything you'll need but keep your cell phone on so I can call you and tell you it." Willow moved over to the table.

Buffy picked the cell phone from out of her pocket, disconnecting the battery and clipping the new one in place. She purposely flicked the phone on and listened as it made a bright welcoming tone.

"See all on, and it'll stay this way until the battery needs charging." She smiled and wiggled the phone in Willow's general direction.

"Okay, do you know where they are?" She asked as she smiled at the noise of the awake and working phone.

"Last sighting was where I was last night. I'm heading back there now to check for any signs or hints as to where they may have gone." Buffy explained her plan.

"Good idea, I'll see what I can find here and phone you okay?" Willow was easily convinced into Buffy's version of events to come.

"Okay, is everyone all right here?" She added, part of her wondering why she hadn't been besieged by her sister at least.

"I'm in the kitchen Buffy!" Dawn's voice called to her. "When you're done talking to Willow."

"She's making a shake." Willow filled in. "For me." She explained more. "And her."

"Hey, I thought shakes were banned for her?" Buffy clarified. "You know the whole grounded thing?"

"It's for me, she might have a sip that's all." Willow smiled.

"What am I supposed to do with you two?" She gave a smile. "Isn't Xander over tonight? He can normally smell a shake from a few thousand yards."

"Down fixing the something pipe to the something where the dryer is." Willow shrugged.

"Mads and Tara are they okay?" Buffy questioned.

"Tara is having a nap, she didn't sleep well last night she told me. Madalene is helping Xander." Willow explained. "They were able to deal with worrying better." She said with a frown.

"You say they deal with it better, I say maybe you just care more." Buffy gave Willow a wink.

"Everyone loves you and was really worried." Willow shook her head.

"I don't doubt it for a second." Buffy gave Willow another smile and pointed off in the direction of the kitchen before she headed there.

"Where have you been?" Dawn hissed at her. "You couldn't phone this morning?"

"I've been being a slayer Dawn, my job." Buffy hissed back. "You know happy family and cute dog slaughtered?"

"I know but… you're job is here too. We need you, Willow has been on edge all day worrying about you." Dawn pointed out.

"I can't be here all the time Dawn." Buffy hated the edge to her voice but made no effort to remove it. "Willow has you, Tara, Xander, Madalene, everyone. The world needs its slayer."

"This isn't about the world!" Dawn hissed back at her. "This is about Spike and the crazy fact you have to try to save him all the time like because he hurt you, you owe him something."

"This is about the world; I went to that town to find out what hurt those people to stop those things from hurting anyone else… If it had been Spike I would have dealt with it. I don't get to pick and choose who I help Dawn. Sometimes that means walking away from other things." Buffy kept her hard scowl.

"It's just like when Angel went bad, you kept trying and trying, risking everything to save him, you're doing the same with Spike." Dawn shook her head. "Willow is better but she is so close to losing it again it scares me, and Tara isn't even really healed yet, and… its better when you're here." She whined more.

"It's better when I'm here why? Because then at least you have someone to ignore? Someone who is trying every single day to do the right things and help in the right way only to be undermined at every single turn. Dawn, I know Willow isn't well, I know Willow may never be well but I'm still the slayer. That means something." Buffy outlined again firmly.

"Fine, go." Dawn scowled at her but didn't raise her voice to alert Willow. "I hope you and Spike are very happy!" She growled and stalked towards the stairs.

Buffy wanting to let it go just found herself unable, she took long strides after her sister.

"This has nothing to do with Spike, this is about me being a slayer and doing my job." She moved her finger to point in turn with her words.

"Your job is here in Sunnydale, you can't save the whole world from every demon in the night." Dawn struck back at her. "Who did patrol here last night?"

"Don't you dare!" Buffy stared at her sister her eyes cold. "You can level a lot of arguments at me but not that one." Her face was set in a hard scowl. "I'll patrol then I'll go and hunt these demons, I guess I'm just supposed to hope that another family is ripped to shreds before I can get to them I guess." She said without thinking to her young sister.

Dawn looked back at her sister but couldn't think of anything else she could say she just locked her jaw and continued her stalk around Buffy and up the stairs.

It only took another few seconds before the Slayer grabbed her sword from by the door and stalked out to the car.

"So do you want to talk about it?" Christian asked once they were well into the dessert and on their way back to the crime scene. They had travelled about 30 miles in total silence without even the radio.

"My sister is a teenage ass." Buffy snarled quietly. "Did I say pompous? Because I meant to say pompous, teenage pompous ass."

"I think teenage pompous ass is a prerequisite isn't it?" He gave her a sideways glance.

"Couldn't she have been different? Couldn't the key in human form be more keyish and less human?" The Slayer huffed.

"I think the intention of human form is to be totally human." Christian sidestepped disagreeing with her directly. "Did she want you to stay?" He questioned.

"Oh no. She wants me to go off running blindly in to risk everything to save the guy who tried to rape me." Buffy huffed without thinking to edit her words

The car screeched to a halt in the middle of the road.

"Sorry?" Christian turned to look at her.

"Spike, vampire guy, told you this already. Me and him bad history… oh wait, I didn't tell you that bit did I?" Buffy frowned slightly.

"No, you didn't mention that bit." Christian frowned. "Are you okay?" He asked rather stupidly not equating that it had been awhile ago.

"Am I okay?" Buffy frowned. "Why have I suddenly gone green or something? She asked not linking his question with anything else.

"He tried to sexually assault you, which must have been horrifying." He clarified.

"Lots of things that happened around that time were horrifying. It was no biggie." Buffy shrugged.

"I really don't understand why Madalene let him go now. She's a witch she could have dealt with him." Christian contemplated.

"Exactly my point." Buffy nodded encouragingly. "She should have just kept him there nice and safe, no one needed to worry." She shook her head over and over.

"I meant more… disposed of him." Christian reluctantly clarified.

"We can't do that." Buffy cut him off.

"Why?" Christian asked her in a tone that said he really did want to know her reasons in case there was a logical one he was missing somehow.

"Because… things were crazy and he didn't mean it and anyway he has a soul now and he's lost his mind, doing anything right now to him is unfair." Buffy's voice sped up.

"Buffy, he's a vampire." Christian gave the soft opposition.

"No he was a vampire, and then… because of me, went and got himself a soul which makes him now, vampire thing with soul." Buffy shook her head. "Which means things have to be fair."

"A soul doesn't make him not a demon." Christian argued. "I mean you think it would but as you said, it drives any old vampire into an insane killing machine."

"No." Buffy shook her head again. "Angel told me, when he regained his soul he couldn't eat. He lived on rats, blood he could get from anywhere, he couldn't eat people."

"Spike is not Angel Buffy." The ex-watcher said even softer. "You can't save him in some better way than you could do for Angel."

"What right do you have to sit there talking like you know them? Either of them or that you know me for that matter? No right that's what you have." Buffy answered her own question.

"A fair statement, forgive me." He started to drive again.

They drove on for a few more moments before Buffy breathed out hard.

"I'm sorry." She apologized to the young watcher softly. "It's just, everybody is being like you, no one seems to understand it's my fault that Spike's in the mess that he's in right now. I'm not talking the other things, the old things; I'm not talking about the past I'm talking about the mess he's in right now."

"Buffy, I don't disagree you have to deal with the feral demons and need to locate and get control of Spike." He shook his head. "What I'm saying is that there is a bigger emotional picture I think, and you need to be prepared for that to creep up on you."

"Emotional picture?" Buffy blinked at him as if not understanding either word.

"I not ashamed to admit I've watched Ophra Buffy." He gave her a soft smile. "Any woman who has been in the position you were, it has a very broad emotional impact on them, even if they are a slayer. Wait especially because you are a slayer and at times like now you have to put your feelings on the back burner because you have to deal."

"So I'm dealing?" She questioned.

"With the now, definitely. With the big emotional impact, not at all I don't think, and I don't mean anything negative by that, other than… it's okay to need to deal with it and in dealing get to feel more than a little uneasy and scared." He tried to tread delicately.

"I'm the slayer, there is no scared." Buffy shook her head.

"Everyone gets scared, even my Uncle Quentin and most people think he doesn't even have a soul." He smirked at her.

"Isn't he a robot? No really isn't he?" Buffy underlined before he could answer. "I mean believe me I've seen some pretty convincing robots."

"No he's not a robot." Christian laughed. "He has far too nasty of body odour to be a robot." He tried to make her smile.

"Never mention that again." Buffy did smile. "Now come on park this heap of junk." She teased him about his precious car. "I've got a job to do."

Madalene knocked on the teenager's door and waited to see if she would be invited in.

"Dawn? I have some hot cocoa." She called through the door knowing it would be something that Tara did but since the blonde was asleep, she was doing her best to fill in.

"You have?" Dawn's surprised question came from the other side.

"With mini marshmallows." Madalene confirmed.

"That's so cool, come in." Dawn invited her brightly.

"Thank you." Madalene smiled as she came in with the mug filled at the top by plump marshmallows. "How are you doing?"

"My sister is a galactic pain in the ass, she's a pain in the world's ass. Maybe everyone got the prophecy wrong, maybe the words Slayer were really slay her, as in kill her immediately on sight as she will be a bane on the world." Dawn ranted immediately.

"Now Dawn, you're sister doesn't deserve to die or be smited." Madalene sat down at the desk with a frown after handing her the mug.

"I'm not sure what she deserves." Dawn admitted. "But I'm not sure it should be anything good." 

"Dawn, you're sister is trying to do the right thing, no matter who he is she has a duty to protect people from him or from anything hunting him." Madalene tried to explain the situation to the teenager. "The issue of Spike has become separate from that."

"Has it?" Dawn stated defiantly. "It looks to me like all the ever so important Slayer is doing is saving the bad guys one demon rapist after another."

"Dawn, I don't think that it's like that." Madalene objected. "I can't say I agree with her either but, she's trying to do what she knows she has too, be the slayer. I don't think she's dealt with Spike as the one who tried to rape her just yet."

"Maybe he didn't."

"Dawn, you know your sister wouldn't lie about that." Madalene shook her head to any other comment of that nature.

"I'm sorry." Dawn mumbled a little. "She just makes me so mad." 

"I know, she's your sister, which is a rule." Mads assured her. "And I would never tell you to agree with her if you truly don't Dawn, but try to give her a little leeway okay? She's had a lot of stuff to deal with lately. Everyone has."

Dawn gave a murmured agreement and played with the marshmallows on top of her chocolate trying to dunk them under the thick brown liquid.

"Are you okay?" She added looking at Madalene. "Tara said you had a bad night."

"I did but I had a good sleep so I'm a lot better." Madalene assured her. "Just a few old memories popping up again." She explained so the teenager didn't think she was keeping things secret.

"Memories? You're having memories? But isn't that a good thing?" Dawn sat up and looked at the Spellcaster.

"Yes but it's hard to have even good ones when I remember Sarah, she died with me in the crash." Madalene admitted.

"What?" Dawn looked horrified. "I didn't know, why didn't I know? Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"I just told you and everyone probably though it was good for me to be the one to talk about it with anyway." Madalene smiled at her.

"Oh yeah, yeah I guess that's right." Dawn nodded. "But that's horrible." She squeaked again. "Do you remember… the crash? Is it that that you dream about?"

"Sometimes." Madalene nodded.

"That must be so hard. God I hate Buffy even more." Dawn screwed up her face and slapped her hand into the soft pillows around her.

"Why would that make you hate Buffy more?" Mads questioned.

"Because she's so horrible to you, to you and to Tara, when she found out spike was gone, she was so mean." Dawn pouted while remembering. "When she thought it was Tara, she was all like I hate Tara and then she found out it was you and she was all I hate Madalene, and now she's all blah blah blah Madalene blah blah blah things haven't been the same since she arrived blah blah blah." Dawn huffed.

"I'm sure she just said that because she was angry." Madalene tried to be non-reactive to the comment.

"She said it because she's stupid." Dawn shook her head. "She said it because she doesn't like things that are better than her. People that make more sense. You make more sense than she ever does."

"Thank you for the vote of confidence Dawn." Madalene smiled at her. "Do you need a spoon for the marshmallows?"

"No, they get icky and sticky and kinda melt then I pull them out and get white goo all over my fingers it feels great." Dawn wrinkled up her nose.

"Fair enough." Madalene smiled at her. "Do you need anything else?" She stood up.

"Thanks for bringing this in. You're just… like Tara only with dark hair and smaller and without Willow." Dawn smiled at her.

"And you're a sweet young woman." Madalene smiled at her. "Let me know if you need anything else." She closed the door behind her.

"So, this is really going to help us track them eh?" Buffy twirled the short canine in her fingers looking at the deep lines of wear on the side of the enamel. She looked then at Christian who was sat in his hotel room surrounded by books and old parchments that he had laid out and weighted down with any heavy object he could find.

"Yes, it's like an amulet to their powers. With it on your possession you can then track them when normally they camouflage into the backdrop until they are already tearing out your throat." He nodded checking his details again.

Buffy turned it over and over in her hand.

"I don't have to do anything funky with it? No grinding it into a pulp and making me drink it, disguised as cocoa." She questioned.

"No though one issue." He re-read another scroll with a frown. "You have to kill the one who lost the tooth last or you lose the connection to see them." He frowned.

"I'm supposed to check their dentistry before I kill them?" Buffy laughed.

"It should be obvious which is missing a canine, they are the fang ones." He put them up to his lips.

"What if these demons have really good dentistry? He could have had a crown put on it." She teased.

"Well then you better try pulling on all of them first." He grinned at her.

"You know it's a good thing you're rethinking being a watcher, because you'd have to lose that sense of humour." Buffy gave him a grin.

"With the size of the tooth and that it fell out I'd say it belongs to the most juvenile member of the pack, probably the smallest body size." He offered her the other information.

"Now you see that's more like being a watcher, tell me the important stuff after everything else." She held up the tooth again. "How many of these puppies do they have?"

"Four, that looks like a top tooth with the way its more rounded, the bottom ones stick straighter up to catch and bury into the prey." He grimaced.

"Yummy." Buffy pulled a face. "I'm guessing Willow didn't find anything useful out?" She made a vague reference to the fact that she had not heard from the redhead since arrival and it was now just shy of midnight.

"You could check in with her?" He suggested.

"Naw." Buffy shook her head. "If she's sleeping I don't want to wake her, and she should be sleeping its late."

"Probably best." He nodded. "I'm sure she figured she didn't find more than she knew you already knew."

"Well I suppose in that case." Buffy slipped the tooth into her pocket and pushed up to stand. "I'll let my model 2 watcher get some sleep."

"You still want to leave just after dawn right?" He checked with her, knowing they had decided to track them during the day when the ferals would be holed up in one location protected from the sun which ruined their camouflage.

"Yes." She nodded. "I'll try to be awake this time." She gave him a smile.

"I'll get breakfast for in the car, it should help motivate." He winked at her. "Sweet dreams."

"And you." Buffy wished him with a smile. "Here's hoping that tomorrow will be a better day."

-x-

Madalene wasn't sure if the next day was supposed to dawn with any more hope or calmness than the previous one but it failed in all accounts. She'd had a restless night, she'd managed some sleep but it was fitful and distracted. She kept waking to think she'd heard something in the house, so more than a half dozen times she'd gone and done a round checking that the doors were still locked and windows were closed tight.

It was hard to believe how thoroughly screwed up everything had so quickly become, and it was even harder to know that all of this had been started by her choice to release Spike.

'Maybe Buffy is right, maybe nothing has been the same since I came to town and maybe that isn't a good thing.' She sighed as she finished the dishes from breakfast.

"Don't tell me I'm the second person up?" From the kitchen doorway Dawn enquired as she came in rubbing her eyes.

"Out of their room yes, I brought Tara and Willow up their breakfasts." Madalene turned and gave her a soft smile. "Yours is all ready." She moved and took the warmed plate of French toast out of the stove and put it on the island for the teenager.

"Cool thanks. Oh… and by the way, I meant to apologize yesterday about the whole Lisa thing. I know Tara explained afterwards what had happened but it must have seemed pretty weird when she came in with the flowers." Dawn sat down.

"Well I was a little worried she'd had a confused spell cast on her or something." Madalene moved to the fridge and poured Dawn some apple juice. "You and she are becoming good friends." She noted with a smile.

"She's nice." Dawn nodded. "And I just hate the way that everyone picks on her. Kind of like they did just after my mom died." 

"Unfortunately there are a lot of stupid people in this world that think the small false amount of self worth you feel you get out of putting someone else down is actually self worth at all." Madalene frowned. "I used to be bullied a lot." She said referencing some of the experiences her flashbacks had given her. "For being a loser, a freak, a witch… everything under the sun."

"I think it sucks, that you can't remember good things about how your life used to be, but you remember the bad." Dawn sighed hard. "I mean if I could forget things it would be the bad stuff."

"It's okay, usually when I remember being beat up then I remember Sarah being there to wipe my tears and console me." Madalene smiled sadly. "There is always good with the bad, I think that's why we can never just get rid of the bad or you lose the good."

"Tara told me you've been having dreams about Sarah. What was she like?" The teenager inquired innocently.

"She was… beautiful." Madalene gave a smirk. "Let's see if I can get you a better answer." She laughed and sat down. "She was tall, like Mr. Giles height… muscular but not too much, not like those women on ESPN." She made a face. "She worked a lot on her family's farm, they had hundreds of cows and there was a lot of hay to look after in the barns and during the bailing season. She had red hair in a short bob, it was fiery red and she had blue eyes. She was a soccer star for the high school, and she road a dirt bike all over the place cause were we lived was very spread out and rural." She summed up.

"She sounds cool." Dawn smiled softly. "My mom she was beautiful, in a mom way."

"Mom's can be beautiful too." Madalene agreed. "What was she like?"

"She smiled a lot." Dawn smiled. "She used to complain I didn't clean my room enough, she called me Pumpkin Belly and read me stories, even though most people would say I was too old. I think the person that probably misses her most is Buffy."

"I noticed she rarely talks about her." Madalene nodded.

"I think it hurts too much you know." Dawn frowned slightly.

"Yes." Madalene nodded again. "Though I bet you miss her just as much." She said softly.

"I was kind of horrible, after she died and then Buffy died and then Tara died." Dawn's sad face turned into more of a scowl. "I guess I'm just the girl who likes to be surrounded by dead people." She frowned even harder.

"No Dawn." Madalene shook her head immediately reaching out to put her hand on the teenager's arm. "There are many things in this world Dawn that are indirectly our fault, but all the tragedy that happened wasn't yours. The thing that is up to you is how you go forward from all of it, as you said you were horrible for awhile, but you chose to stop that and chose to be you again. That shows you have more strength than you'll ever know."

"Buffy thinks I'm still horrible." Dawn scowled.

"No." Madalene shook her head immediately. "Now this is just crazy me opinion…" She disclaimed with a soft smile. "But I think Buffy has had so much on her plate lately that you went from being 'Dawn' her cute and annoying but dearly loved little sister, to 'Dawn – the thing I have to do right or else I'm letting mom down all over again'. Right now she's so caught up in trying to do the right things; she's forgotten that she can't control everything."

"Why do you stick up for her?" Dawn asked with a shrug.

"Because… because I can see that inside, she's not happy with how she is going about things either, but she can't find a way to breach what she is and what she wants to be." Madalene offered the probably strange and vague reason.

"But what about the fact that she's hurting and upsetting everyone in her 'quest'?" She challenged. "Doesn't that bother you? The fact that without thinking about it, contemplating it, or even listening she was ready to let Tara take Willow and leave us. I mean it's not as if Tara's well, and everyone knows though she wants too she can't be everything Willow needs. No one person can."

"I don't think your sister is reacting with anything other that the hurt little bit inside her." Madalene frowned. "When Tara said she was going to leave, did you see the moment of panic that went across her face? Then the moment of disbelief because fact is fact she is the Slayer Dawn and when push comes to shove we have to be ready to listen to her, or suffer the consequences of our own actions. She has been looking after Willow and you and everyone after Tara died and now Tara is coming in and…" Madalene hesitated. "I'm sorry Dawn, I hope you know I view you really as a young woman who if given half a chance is a lot more level headed than everyone gives her credit for, and because of that I start speaking of things in my crazy head of opinion that I shouldn't too at times."

"I don't mind." Dawn shook her head. "I like to be spoken too like an adult, not all the time you know, I mean I can't imagine having to go through something bad without a cuddle from Tara or something equally childish but I am nearly seventeen, my sister by this age was already the slayer, I think she forgets that."

"Oh no Dawn." Madalene shook her head immediately. "She never ever has that far from her mind because Dawn what she wants most for you, before your Mom died, before she died or Tara died or any of that, she has always wanted one thing for you, that you have the most normal happy and typical teenage hood that anyone could ever have, because she wasn't allowed to. She had demons to kill, and the man who captured her heart was a vampire that she could never be with. She wants your first heartbreak to be about a boy or even a girl who you are in mad love with, but somehow hurts you. She wants to be there with ice cream and tissues to help you through it, because when she had a bad thing happen when she was a teenager, innocent people died."

"But I'm the key." Dawn screwed her nose up.

"No Dawn, you were the key and to try to give you a normal life as just Dawn and take the curse of the key thing away from you, Buffy died." Madalene said the last two words softly.

"We don't know that that changed anything." Dawn shook her head. "Well other than immediately saved the world." She pointed out. "I could still have green goo floating around somewhere in my inner being just waiting to one day to ooze out and freak out my husband and six kids."

"Saving the world wasn't enough power for you?" Madalene questioned with a soft smirk. "You want secret oozing goo too?"

"No, I don't want goo. You can have my goo, anyone can have my goo." Dawn shook her head more violently.

"Dawn, Dawn… whoa." Madalene squeezed her arm and tried to get her to focus a little. "Dawn even if you have goo or find out you have powers later on in life, you are still Dawn, you are still Dawn and you are beautiful, and funny and sometimes childish but sometimes very mature and thoughtful."

Dawn let out a soft sigh and sipped her juice.

"If Tara leaves, I'm going with her." She admitted to the Spellcaster, "I'll help with Willow, stay out of the way when they need private time; I'm not staying here with just Buffy." She shook her head again.

"Well I hope it doesn't come to that then, I think your sister needs you, all of you, right here with her." Madalene said with a soft smile.

"You mean you'd stay with her?" Dawn blinked her eyes wide at the other woman, "Are you crazy, at least move out with Tara and Will and me, or go home, now you remember so much it might be different there."

"Do you think that would be a good idea?" Madalene asked her.

"Being here helped Tara, being surrounded by familiar things helped her remember how happy she was, and she's remembering new things every day." Dawn replied honestly. "What if you go home and find pieces of yourself there just waiting to be found again?"

"You're right. I guess I have a big decision to make then if everyone does move out but what I mean Dawn was that not thinking of me as part of the equation, Buffy needs her family around her, her family is you, Willow and Tara." Madalene stood up. "Do you want some more juice?" She moved to the fridge.

"No, Midnight needs walking and Lisa is coming round at 10 for catch up session number 5." The teenager smiled.

"I'm glad you're keeping up with your work." Madalene nodded and poured herself a glass. "I think I'm going to go meditate, if you could just rinse the plate when you're done I'll wash it later okay?" She smiled as she moved to the door.

"No problem." Dawn nodded and continued eating.

"It appears that no one previously quite understood how fast one of these creatures could move." Christian frowned as they stood in front of the large concrete culvert, the remnants of the feral pack obvious, though there was no sign of the demons now.

They had spent all their time since dawn tracking the demons from the town where the last murder had occurred. Of course one thing they were good at was being able to cover their tracks, so it had taken careful planning and asking around strategically for gossip which had lead them here.

"If you need to go home, I understand." Buffy frowned hard. "I need to keep going." She added with a determined nod.

"What? Oh no I'm in till the end." Christian shook his head. "Where too next? It's getting late; we could try a local pup, see if any of the old boys know anything?"

"This isn't England you know, asking for a pint at the pub would probably just get you escorted off the premises." Buffy put on her best British accent.

"Then what would you suggest?" Christian laughed.

"You mean you're not going to make your usual food and somewhere to rest rant?" Buffy teased.

"Not for at least another hour." He cocked an eyebrow at her. "Did you want me to move it up on the schedule?"

"No, that's fine." Buffy shook her head. "I'm sorry this is turning out to be rather a long wild goose chase, but despite the Spike issue these demons are killing people which makes it my job."

"It does, and that's why I'm here trying to help you in any way that I can. So come on, let's see if they've left town or are still here somewhere looking for a meal." Christian nodded and looked around. "There's a break in the security fence over there." He pointed.

"Then that's where we go." Buffy nodded in that direction and set off pausing momentarily to look at Christian. "Don't take this the wrong way…" She said. "But this feels so weird."

"Weird? Do you think they're nearby?" He stopped looking around more.

"No, weird as in I'm used to doing this with my friends." She explained. "Not that you're not a friend, it's just you know we've been hunting this thing for hours but without some lame joke from Xander or Will worrying about whether the mud stain on her new logo t-shirt will come out. It hardly seems real. You know?"

"With that explanation I do." He nodded. "And I don't mind if this is our only solo mission."

"You're going to love the gang. When they're not being assholes." Buffy smiled.

"The good thing about good friends, you love them even when they are being assholes." Christian laughed and walked to the fence pulling it further open for her. "Come on, let's send the puppies to the pound." He tried his best to come up with one of what Buffy called witty puns.

Buffy climbed through pausing midway.

"That was really bad." She smiled at him and then went all the way through.

Madalene came around from the dining room and looked into the living room with a smile.

"I thought I heard someone creep down." She said softly to her cousin. "Did Willow drop off?" She moved to sit down on the couch with Tara.

"Actually no." Tara shook her head. "She's decided that the bedroom needs rearranging, and despite my attempts to convince her that tomorrow would be a fine day for bedroom rearranging she'd determined to at least rough out a sketch of her plans and ideas." She smiled. "I decided to leave her too it."

"Given any more thought to speaking to her Doctor about lowering something so she's not quite so… focused sometimes?" Madalene asked softly.

"I have." Tara nodded. "I just don't want to go to fast for her, for any of us. Yesterday proved to me that when her 'freak' isn't a me thing, I'm as helpless as everyone else. It's a very scary feeling." She admitted with a frown.

"It is." Madalene nodded. "Hopefully Buffy will be able to do what she needs to and she'll be home and then Willow can focus on getting better again."

"Yes." Tara agreed with a nod. "I'm hoping that when this issue is over the real things can become the focus again." She gave a slightly tight smile. "I think perhaps I've been being too hard on Buffy, she's had to deal with so much and though having me back must be a good thing, I know I'm not the person I was before."

"It's an adjustment for both of you." Madalene agreed. "I wish I wasn't here making things more complicated."

"You can't be blamed for interacting badly with someone you don't know." Tara shook her head and gave Madalene a warm smile. "It's my excuse and I'm sticking too it." Her smile grew a little.

"It's a good one, but I really can't help but thinking that maybe you and Buffy would be able to find a quicker common ground if there wasn't the unknown factor of me complicating things. At least that's what Dawn suggested Buffy thought." Madalene frowned slightly.

Tara frowned with her.

"Dawn suggested you shouldn't be here?" She said her voice full of disbelief.

"No, Dawn surprisingly was more focused on how I might find some peace if I went home. She had been asking me about my vision dreams." Mads explained to her cousin. "She just happened to mention that Buffy thought that since I was here things were much more complicated and not normal."

Tara actually smiled.

"What do you think would be best for you?" Tara swiftly made her focus clear.

"Honestly, I don't know." Madalene shook her head. "As I said to you a few days ago, part of me wants to go, to sort this out in my head but then I feel like I'm deserting everyone here and I don't want to do that."

"You have to do what you think will help you." Tara said gently. "We'll always be here." She smiled tenderly. "Me especially." She laughed. "Providing no one has plans to behead me or otherwise irrevocably disable my regenerative powers." She made light of their heritage.

"You wouldn't be mad if I went?" Madalene asked her in a quiet voice.

"Not if it's what you needed, I know when you mentioned it before I had a Tara moment, by the way…" She paused. "That's what I'm referring to as the times that I temporarily loose my mind, like when I start challenging the Slayer's ability to take care of the people she's been taking care of for years, Tara moments." She smiled.

"It was a good moment, made me feel very welcome and loved." Madalene shook her head. "Just I don't know how much use I'm going to be to anyone when most of my mind isn't thinking about anything but Sarah right now."

"Sounds to me like you know what you should do." Tara said softly.

"Mmmm I think you just ambushed me." Madalene smiled at her. "Tara moment or not, if you want me here for awhile longer… I'll stay." She reached out and put her hand on Tara's.

"And then when this moment is over and another moment happens?" Tara smiled but shook her head gently. "There will always be reasons not to go… what are more important right now are the reasons for going."

"I have to wait until Buffy gets back at least." Madalene made the provision.

"I'm not throwing you out the door." Tara laughed. "Why don't you do just some simple checking around? You know flight prices, places to stay." Tara listed a few.

"Okay, I'll do that. You want to help?" Madalene asked looking to where Willow's laptop was on the living room table. "You know how hopeless I am."

"I know you ask me, because the two of us together more or less make one competent person." She laughed softly.

"Yes, and because Willow knows what you mean when you tell her the blue thingy said we were going to blow up and then a grey thingy said we had a Trojan worm on the loose." Madalene laughed with her.

"It's Dawn who will never let me forget the 'trojan worm is that a new demon' faux pas." Tara moved to get the laptop.

"Do you think there is a hospital for Slayers? Do you think we could send Buffy there?" Anya propped herself up on one hand as she watched Xander as he pottered around tidying up the dishes from the meal they had just enjoyed together.

"Sorry?" Xander put away the strainer under the sink. "Why would Buffy need a hospital? We can usually stitch her up enough, or we take her to the regular hospital."

"No I mean you know, to fix her head." Anya tapped her temple. "We can't fix that and she's clearly not thinking clearly right now. She's left town with a Watcher none of us know, to fight and kill a pack of demons who are trying to do the world a favour by eliminating a vampire, and insane vampire." She clarified.

"I know it sounds crazy, but she has to kill the demons, I admit I don't get the protecting Spike thing but… do you think Giles could get someone brought in?" He looked at the demon. "Have you ever heard of a psychiatrist for slayers?"

"I don't think most of them live long enough to loose their minds." Anya shook her head, "I mean I'm not sure that I could live with the fact that I killed a family, their little child and a gorgeous puppy." She shrugged.

"Anya first you are a demon who has tore the hearts out of more men than anyone can count, secondly she didn't kill anyone or any dogs, that was Spike or probably those other demons which is why she has to hunt them and dust them." Xander struck up for her. "Wait, do you think that all this craziness is because Buffy's reached some Slayer mid life crisis year? You know all that quick thinking backfires for awhile as a test?"

"Could be." Anya nodded. "I mean I've never heard of it, but then I only ever knew one slayer over 25." The demon gave a shrug. "And she was a crazy bitch before she ended her teens."

"Maybe I should talk to Giles about it." Xander moved to get his coat. "Do you want anything picked up while I'm out honey?"

"Xander!" Anya squeaked and sat up, "I have come here for a meal, and to spend the evening with you, not to be abandoned for some smelly old English man before I've even had foreplay."

"Oh right sorry. Do you want to come to Giles? We could have fun in the car." He wiggled his eyebrows. "Like in high school."

"Well now that's better." Anya stood up and straightened her very short skirt. "I might even stay over." She wiggled her eyebrows.

Willow followed Tara into the bathroom when the blonde when to brush her teeth.

"So… what were you and Madalene doing that you needed to know my membership codes for Orbitz?" Willow asked her softly.

"Looking for flights." Tara answered quickly. "But not for me." She added smiling.

"Oh." Willow breathed a sigh of relief and then frowned. "For who? Is Madalene going somewhere?"

"Maybe." Tara nodded. "She's thinking possibly of going home."

"I thought she didn't have a home." Willow asked slightly confused. "I mean, that she didn't remember where she was from before she died." 

"Recently she has remembered." Tara explained. "Through dreams, a little like my visions about the past." 

"But Buffy isn't home… she'd be upset if she left now." Willow put forward.

"She's not leaving now, she's just thinking about it." Tara shook her head.

"I'm sorry that… I'm not being more helpful." Willow sat down on the edge of the tub. "I mean, I should have talked to Buffy, maybe convinced her to stay here."

"She's doing her job sweetie." Tara reached out and pressed two fingers through Willow's hair just over her ear. "No one can stop a slayer doing her job."

"I know she said I should research but I didn't bother phoning her because she didn't seem interested in anything I could find her." Willow sighed.

"I'm sure she was interested." Tara said gently. "She's just distracted right now, confused about so many things." She shook her head softly as she spoke.

"What can I do to help her?" Willow looked up with sad green eyes at her lover. "I used to be able to help her, I don't think I'm good enough anymore." 

"You are good enough." She gently cupped the side of Willow's face. "To be helped, you have to want help." She underlined softly. "Right now, Buffy doesn't want help. She wants to try and fight, make things make sense."

"Are you okay?" Willow looked into blue eyes.

"I'm tired." Tara admitted. "Kinda achy, and just you know, blah."

"I could get you a heat pack? It usually helps with achy." Willow offered. "Then we could snuggle up and get you to sleep early."

"We could." Tara gave a tired smile. "But I've still got to check Dawn's catch up work, change the wash, make sure the temporary fix Xander put on the back fence is holding, I swear Midnight has taken up carpentry skills."

"Wow that's a long list." Willow looked at her. "Too bad that all of that has to wait cause you're coming to bed." She said in an even almost authoritative tone. "Because you need to rest. See the resolve face." She looked at the blonde.

"I love the resolve face." Tara leaned forward and kissed her gently on the lips. "Make sure I set the alarm then, so I can do things in the morning."

"Maybe." Willow smiled at the kiss.

"Are you getting saucy?" Tara grinned.

"No, I just remember how you forget to not overdo it and someone has to reel you back in." Willow grinned back at her. "And that's my job."

"Do you have a badge or a uniform?" Tara wiggled her eyebrows.

"Maybe, if you're really good and stop trying to be Mary Poppin's perfect." Willow winked at her.

"I have to at least check the fence. I don't want to have to go and reclaim Midnight from the neighbours in as many mornings." Tara chuckled.

"It's 'cause she's looking for Buffy." Willow frowned.

"I know and believe me next time our dear Slayer friend leaves the area, she's taking the dog." The blonde laughed.

"Okay you check the fence, I get you a heat pack and we meet in bed. But just the fence, right?" Willow stood up.

"I have to pass the washer, to get to the fence." Tara offered cheekily.

"No, only the fence or just get in bed." Willow said firmly.

"Okay just the fence." Tara gave her lover a bright smile.

"Come on Giles it's not that crazy, I mean this is the 21st century, even Slayer's can sometimes need some psychiatric counselling." Xander pitched his idea to the older watcher who didn't look pleased to have his house invaded at this hour by the young man and Anya.

"Do I have the date wrong? Is it 'waste valuable watcher's time day'?" Giles frowned. "It's bad enough that Buffy has gone AWOL with her latest boyfriend. Without you making some suggestion that she's done so because she is insane." The Watcher seemed unusually bad tempered.

"No, well I don't just mean because she went off with her… hey who said they were dating? No one told me." He looked between Giles and Anya.

"Well I can see any other reason why Buffy would just take off with a young man without so much as discussing her actions with me." Giles pointed out.

"Maybe she's just helpless to resist a Watcher's will." Anya gave a shrug. "I suppose it could be a turn on; there are all kinds of fetishes in this world."

"Anya please." Giles scowled. "And what are you talking about?" 

"Ewww… I don't think Buffy has left because she wants to explore kink with Giles Anya." Xander made a face.

"Hello no!" Anya screwed up her nose equally horrified. "The young man, Buffy has eloped with, is from England, and even if I didn't know for sure, just the fact that he's here suggests he's a little weird."

"Oh my God, Buffy ran off with another watcher?" He looked at Giles horrified. "I'm so sorry."

"The Council haven't informed me of any visiting watcher's." Giles frowned. "Unless…" His voice tapered off as he crossed to his desk. Rifling through some paperwork he seemed to find what he was looking for and then looked at Xander with a solemn frown. "Do you know who this man is?" He said his voice serious.

"Buffy introduced him as Christian at the Bronze that was about it." He shrugged.

"Christian?" Giles looked back at the piece of paper in his hand. "God Damn it!" He cursed angrily tossing the paper aside.

"What, what?" Xander prompted him to explain.

"That boy isn't here for Buffy." He scowled more and began to pace across his apartment towards the phone.

"What? What is he here for? Spike?" Xander moved to follow him wanting more answers. "Is anyone in danger? Is he here to hurt Willow?"

"Well one could indirectly say that what he wants would hurt Willow." Giles quickly got the number and scowled when he got the busy tone on the other end.

"Who is he?" The younger man tried to push for more information of any kind.

"You're asking me, when it's you two who have met him." Giles scowled.

"English guy, tall and sorta handsome." Xander shrugged. "Not my type?"

"I remember the days when you used to tell me everything that was going on." Giles scowled more and went back to look through more papers.

"What? Come on G-man, look we're over here telling you everything." Xander followed him. "Wait…" He grabbed the first memo that Giles had discarded. "Is this Christian that Christian? As in nephew of the big evil Quentin Christian?"

"Yes." Giles said with a heavy sigh.

"Why is he here? Does Buffy have to pass some you're over 20 slayer test where you take away her powers again?" Xander's eyes went wide.

"I told you Xander it doesn't work like that, I told him." Anya piped in.

"No." Giles jaw locked. "He's been sent with 3 colleagues to procure something for the Council."

"What?" Xander leaned closer urging him to just say it.

"Tara." Giles said through clenched teeth. "Or Madalene, preferably both."

"What? The Council is insane, Buffy's going too…" Xander stopped. "That cheating lying nephew of a Quentin, he's lead Buffy away so they can kidnap them."

"Or more likely have his colleagues do so." Giles nodded. "I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the Council have released the demons that caused this recent attack or more than likely just fabricated the whole event for this very purpose."

"You belong to one evil organization dude." Xander sneered at him. "Well come on, we have to get to Buffy's house and protect the girls." He wondered why everyone else weren't already racing for the car.

"The Watcher's Council is not evil Xander." Giles shook his head. "They just know there is much to be learned from Madalene and Tara. I have no doubt that both girls will be given an offer to consider."

"What, come with us or we kidnap you?" Xander rolled his eyes. "Nice offer."

"Do I look like I condone this action?" The Watcher scowled a little more. "Have any of you had the pleasure of meeting Travis Jr's friends?"

"No." Xander shook his head. "He was alone the night we met him, or at least not around his friends."

"I feel uncertain how to proceed." Giles admitted as he went back to the phone. "I'm attempting to contact Quentin."

"We can head to Buffy's see if we can get her on her cell?" Xander offered. "Tell her the what's what and she can bop Christian on the head and find out the plan, be it nice or evil."

"I have to admit, that nice is losing the running at the moment, especially with Christian luring Buffy away as he has." Giles hung up the phone again when it continued to ring busy.

"Yeah, I mean all the Spike stuff was probably just coincident. They knew if Buffy heard about a demonic murder there she'd go and Christian could be there being Mr. Suave Helpful. So evil." Xander summed up.

"Comprehensive." Giles corrected with a shake of his head. "To be quite frank, I doubt if Spike is still alive by now, an insane vampire doesn't tend to pay too much attention to his basic needs, so at the moment we really appear to be looking at a direr plan but at the same time we cannot risk alarming the girls falsely, especially considering Willow's health."

"Anya and I could go stake out the place and try to get a hold of Buffy?" Xander offered. "You find out what you can here and phone us."

"Do people really make social calls at 11 in the evening?" Giles asked with a frown.

"I think he meant more park outside with the lights off and make sure no one evil tries to get into the house." Anya rolled her eyes at Giles' apparent stupidity. "He'll want me to teleport to the back and check the dark corners, he's such a wimp."

"Yes, of course." Giles nodded to the revised plan. "I will try to call Buffy's cell to advise her of the situation. Perhaps this will remind us all to stay a little closer together."

The phone in Buffy's pocket that was hung on the chair near the double bed in her small hotel room rang over and over insistently.

With a groan Buffy turned over and stared at her coat. Part of her willing it to just stop ringing but then part of her more worried that perhaps it was Dawn calling and something was wrong at home.

She pushed up and out of the bed and when she recognized Giles' number on the display she was tempted just not to answer. But then again her mind went into full worry mode, had things got that bad at home that Giles was the only one able to call?

"Hello?" She said answering it with a sleepy voice.

"Hello Buffy, I'm sorry to wake you." He apologized.

"Giles, I'm not sorry that you've woken me if this is something important." The Slayer was quick and honest.

"I believe it is. I'm afraid you may not be aware of the connections the gentleman travelling with you has, or his possible reason for accompanying you on this mission." Giles was straightforward after her comment.

"What? Giles it's 11:30 at night, and you're making even less sense than usual." Buffy complained. "How do you know I'm on a mission anyway? I haven't discussed it with you."

"No, but how I know isn't important. The young man you are travelling with is from the Council." Giles informed her waiting to hear her shock.

"Yeah, he's Quentin's nephew." Buffy grumbled as she walked back to the bed. "You called me in the middle of the night to tell me this?"

"Well, I was unaware you were aware. As you said you have not been consulted on this particular mission." Giles countered his voice stern. "Then I guess you are not concerned about the Council's plans to approach Tara and Madalene about going to England so research can be conducted on them?"

"Giles are you okay?" Buffy asked a edge of concern filling her voice. "You've not drunk anything, taken anything that anybody gave you have you?"

"Oh great, that is such an old trick. Already plant the doubt by suggesting I have a drinking problem." Giles huffed in disbelief. "Buffy listen, the Council sent me papers outlining their intention the first time I mentioned to Tara and Madalene about going to England, it seems that they decided to go ahead with the idea regardless of me telling them neither girl was interested in their offer. What I can assure you is there are equal chances their intentions are hostile then friendly."

"The Council are coming to get Tara and Madalene?" Buffy's voice filled with tension.

"You would be better to ask your new friend in the Council, he is the head of the mission." Giles said frankly.

"What?" Buffy squeaked. "Whoever told you that is wrong." Her voice was firm. "Christian's just a nice guy."

"With over five year's secret operative council training Buffy, he is very versed in deception." Giles set the facts for her to ponder.

"If and I mean if he was part of this crazy plan, why is he here with me? He can hardly swipe Mads or Tara away when he's half way across the state with me?" Buffy contradicted.

"Because his portion of the plan is to take the only truly formidable defence Tara and Madalene have and ensure it is too far away to offer any defence." Giles added to his growing hypothesis.

"What so there are a whole group of council members hanging around Sunnydale waiting for me to leave?" Buffy's voice grew louder than before as her inner worry grew. "And what happened to you spending so long trying to convince me that the Council aren't bad after all? If what you're suggesting is the truth that would mean they brutally killed an innocent family."

"Buffy, Tara rose from the dead, if the Council could infuse that heritage into its Slayer, it would have world wide domination against all vampires and demons." Giles hissed the possible leads in research he had heard from a friend were being tossed around at the Council.

"Watch Tara, I'm going to talk to Christian." Before Giles could contradict the Slayer's plan she flipped the phone closed and stalked out of her room in her brief sleep shorts and t-shirt.

She knocked loudly on the other hotel room door and waited.

"Hello? Buffy what is the problem?" Christian pulled open the door when he saw her in the security hole.

"You." Buffy replied, poking him forcefully in the shoulder to make him back up.

"What?" He did just that walking backwards to the end of the short hall in the room.

"You have approximately 10 seconds to explain why you have been lying to me and to give me a reason not to break your kneecaps." Buffy voice was iced cold as she stared at the young man.

"I…" He gulped. "I don't know what you're talking about, I haven't lied to you."

"Let's see if I can help refresh you. Anytime something comes to mind that you should have told me just interrupt." Buffy glared at him. "And believe me, for your sake, I hope you interrupt me really early."

"Buffy…" He was going to object again to the idea he was lying but just decided to go quiet under her steely glare.

"Okay our starter for ten is Tara." She said the blonde's name succinctly and kept her eyes on him to see if he was going to say anything.

"Your friend, she recently rose from the dead." He said in an even tone.

"Not what I wanted to hear." Buffy shook her head and curled her small hand into a fist.

"Wait, wait, I know because it was part of the debrief about you when I was coming." Christian added quickly.

"Still not the right answer." Buffy drew her hand a little further back. "Madalene."

"Your friend, the one I asked if you were dating." He said with a smirk trying to find some moment of brevity.

"I'm going to hit you now." Buffy pre-empted her move. "It's going to hurt. When the initial pain wears off tell yourself it's going to hurt more next time she hits me and for a longer period of time."

"Bu…" Christian tried to object but the solid right cross made him twirl a bit and stagger back onto the bed. He put his hand up to his face feeling the flare of hot fire up the whole left side. It took him a few moments to feel like he could breathe again and he carefully moved his jaw making sure it wasn't broke. "Before I left the Council…" He started to talk slowly. "I was sent over here to invite them to England so that research and documentation could be completed on the heritage, but it was just a lackey assignment my uncle thought up to keep me away from any danger. He doesn't respect me, that is why I quit the Council."

"And you with your Oxford education didn't think to tell me any of this?" Buffy tipped her head a little to the side gazing at Christian's bewilderment. "Oh wait, I can do better than that, you did think about it and you purposely didn't tell me because you knew when you did I'd tell you to piss off, get out of Sunnydale and leave me and my friends alone."

"Yes." He said suddenly. "Because I knew you needed help, someone just to back you up while your friends were dealing with other things. I was trying to be helpful, to really be a part of the action." He admitted.

"You were trying to keep me busy while your friends kidnapped my friends." She turned on her heel and began to stalk to the door.

"Kidnap? Who said anything about kidnapping?" Christian pushed up and followed her. "They are here to pitch a six week vacation, all expenses paid with doctors and such to help with Willow, and all the library access Tara desires with 3 assigned interns to help do any outsourced digging. For Madalene the chance to plan an itinerary of places to visit for research. We were here to hand them a world trip on a platter. Trust me it's taken a lot of planning and dipping into the deep pockets at the Council coiffeurs."

"I really suggest if you want to be able to walk out of this hotel that you stop lying to me." Buffy growled.

"I'm telling you the truth, do you think I'd be stupid enough to be within a 10 foot radius of you once you found out your friends were taken. I wouldn't be worried about walking, talking or doing anything much than being dead. Besides the fact…" He stood up straight. "I would never agree to kidnap two innocent women like that and think if I had wanted too, I was in the Bronze the night Madalene was drunk along time before you found her."

Buffy stopped taking a deep breath.

"Then why didn't you tell me any of this? Who you really are and why you were really here?" She felt an angry tear of frustration well in her eye. "I really liked you damn it."

"I guess very wrongly I didn't see it as a big deal for you or them, the pitch is made with or without me and if they say no then the team goes back to try to put an even juicer offer together, probably a house or something." He gave a slight smile. "To me it was more about my Uncle treating me like a useless little boy no matter how much I worked or how successful I was."

"If they told you that and you believed it then you really are the little boy that your Uncle thinks you are. The Council don't know what the word 'no' means, believe me, I've said it to them a 1000 times and the only time they realized they needed to kiss my ass was when we were facing a Hell God and your research might have told you that that particular episode ended really badly for me."

"Buffy, I swear to you I don't know anything about a kidnapping plot." Christian shook his head. "And if I did, then the first thing I would have told them is forget it the Slayer will hunt you down and kill you and secondly, if I'd known of one I would have immediately told you."

Buffy took a breath trying to internalize everything that had happened in the last 15 minutes. As her mind and heart fought over the possibilities and the likelihood of her ever understanding this situation.

"How many people came with you?" She asked.

"Three, two males one female." He said accurately seeing her assessing the facts and issues.

"You didn't think that four people to convince two traumatized witches was a bit excessive?" A second flare of worry lit in Buffy's head.

"I… well…" Christian stopped. "I am a pillock."

"You're a fish?" Buffy looked at him confused.

"Pillock not Pollock." He said with a sad smile. "They totally played me, and I fell for it." He moved back to sit on the bed. "I'm sorry Buffy, I'm sorry I'm a pillock."

"I'm taking it that calling yourself a pillock is a way of expressing serious disappointment with yourself." Buffy let out a hard sigh.

"Yes very much so." Christian nodded. "We have to get you home immediately." He moved to the dresser to get some clothes.

"I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt." Buffy said looking at the young man her face still a hard line. "But only because I like you. Don't make me regret that."

"I know… catch." He threw her the car keys. "Go get changed come back and get me when your ready."

Buffy gave a nod, catching the keys easily before she moved back to her room.

As it was now midnight by the time the Slayer and Ex-watcher came through the front lobby towards the exit out into the parking garage, the desk clerk was caught by surprise.

"Sir… Sir.. I'm sorry but you can't go outside right now." He moved around the desk moving to block them.

"Why not?" Christian asked immediately.

"I'm afraid there's been some kind of dog attack in the area, the police have asked we keep the guests inside while they check the parking lots and the back alley. They think its still in the area." He explained. "I could make coffee while you're delayed?" He offered.

Buffy glanced quickly at Christian with eyes that said 'I don't believe it'.

"Um yeah go make coffee." He urged the little man to go back to his desk, which he did wanting to be helpful. "Let's go." He urged Buffy to head towards the side doors as they moved outside while the clerk was busy. "So any ideas?" He asked looking around.

"I have my tooth." Buffy held it up and attempted a smile. "Whatever's going on in Sunnydale right now, I have to admit my duty as a Slayer is here."

"So let's get these puppies on a leash and then get you home." Christian began to walk to the car.

"Cancel the car." Buffy called as she began sprinting across the tarmac. "Come on." She called.

"What did you see?" Christian started to run after her, finding at his top speed he couldn't even make ground on her.

"Well I'm taking it the dogs responsible for the latest attack were the purple scaly kind." Buffy motioned that she was veering off down an alley that by the time Christian got there would be impossible to discern.

"That's a feral assassin!" Christian yelled to her coming to the stop suddenly and watching her direction for a moment before he began to run back to the car when she went out of sight.

As the Slayer's run led her into a deserted small baseball field whose outfield led to dense forest she could feel a change in the air.

Her view of the ferals had been obstructed when the dogs had moved from the small alleyway into the park. There were dark shadowed areas under the bleachers and deep within both dugouts that any creature of a big size could hide in.

The Slayer moved sideways a bit to the right when she first came out of the alley.

"Here doggy doggy doggy." She called softly as she moved towards the first dug out on the closer side of the field. "Don't be afraid of the big bad slayer, I just want to break your neck." She cautiously peered into the dark. Almost instantly the large scale covered body of a feral assassin lunged at her, its fangs bared and covered in reddish drool as it attacked her.

She was easily able to throw him off before his jaws got anywhere near her, but as she did she rolled onto her stomach and pushed off in chase when she saw him running towards the pitchers mound and then to the trees it seemed.

"Not so fast." She started running after it but within seconds knew this wasn't a good idea as she heard snarls coming up behind her. "Damn the doggies know traps." She cursed as she gave a quick glance back to see the other four bearing down on her.

The field gate suddenly crashed in and Christian's car dug its way across the grass pitching chunks of turf everywhere. The man immediately starting blaring the horn and turning the lights on and off as he drove in Buffy's general direction unable to see the threat but knowing it was there.

"You can't be the mastermind Giles' thinks you are." She laughed to herself as she saw the ferals momentarily stop chasing her so that she could manoeuvre away a little towards the car. "GIVE ME A WEAPON!" She screamed at him.

"HERE!" He yelled back badly throwing a short sword out the window that bounced and sunk into the grass.

"CRAP THROW PILLOCK!" She called back annoyed as she dove at the spot the sword had landed just as two of them came at her from either side and leapt into each other with a thud.

"Good sword choice though." She held it in her hands and then lifted up to bring a down swing into one of the dogs cutting off its head. "Ooo and not my tooth boy." She turned and squared off with the largest dog that was snarling and growling at her.

"Come on, you and me, let the smaller ones live for now." She focused on him as they circled each other. With a split second movement the dog was on her going for her leg or arm to sink his teeth into. Buffy pulled the sword straight up hilt first, basically scooting sideways just enough to drive the point down into it's skull as it hit the apex of its lunge.

"They never like it when you kill the biggest one." Buffy groaned when she turned to see the three others running for the forest. "Crossbow!" She called at Christian starting to run.

Rather slow on the gas, Christian struggled to get the bow out of the bag next to him and then put his foot to the floor trying to get any speed out of the almost no traction his tires were getting on the wet grass.

"Here." When he was level he tossed it to her and watched as she left the car in its dust with a burst of speed and she levelled the crossbow as she went.

"Here's hoping you are the slightly chunky one." She let it fly and it sunk into the side of the scale covered dog's body dropping him instantly. "If only I had two swords." Buffy cursed as she took aim with the one in her hand and throwing all her momentum into the heavy steel she flung it at another of the dogs, the blade deeply embedding into it's abdomen to make it stubble but it started to whine showing it was only very wounded.

Making a split second decision Buffy took off after the last running one. She knew she couldn't let it get to the trees or she'd lose it for a few more hours while they cleaned up the ones here.

"If I get grass stains…" She got close enough and leapt at the back of the dog. She tried to be very careful as she got it in a headlock and dragged it to a stop to keep its muzzle far away from any part of her she didn't want chewed off. When they hit the ground she wiggled her body to get some leverage and then with a twist she cracked its neck.

"Are you alright? Is that all of them? I can still hear one squealing." Christian drove the car up near her.

"I had to keep one sorta alive." She pressed up. "Oh great, grass stain." She pouted as she walked back to where her sword was on the ground. "I didn't know which one was the tooth one, I guess wrong." She listened for a moment and then sliced with her sword, the air seeming thick as she cut the last dogs head off and the squealing stopped. "But I had a backup." She grinned and moved to the car. "Nice driving, though work on the sword toss it's important."

"You got it." He waited until she got in the passenger's side and then started as fast as he could towards the road again. They had only got another twenty feet when a chunk of dirt came out of the ground obviously with a large rock attached to it and with a sudden bang and a hiss the hood exploded with white steam and the car sputtered to a halt. "Piece of junk." He cursed hitting the steering wheel. "We have to find alternative transportation; it wasn't ready for life with a Slayer."

"I'm sorry." Buffy winced and apologized sympathetically. "I tend to have that affect on cars." She admitted. "Could I suggest heading back to the hotel? I can call Giles, check everything's okay, clean up and we could get a rental?"

"Sounds good. Do we have to clean up these guys?" He looked around knowing there were feral corpses here and there.

"They don't poof do they?" Buffy tutted with a sigh.

"Not that I saw, but then again I didn't see anything?" He suddenly pitched straight forward on his face. "Think I found one." He groaned.

"Great, grab a hold of it and feel around for its mouth. You can yank a couple of its teeth out and we'll both be able to see him, oh wait that doesn't work when they're dead does it? We could pick up some spray paint, Willow did that once when I was invisible." She laughed as she came to haul the carcass into the woods.

It had taken Willow a long time to decide if she should wake Tara or not. After all it was 2am, the blonde had been very tired when she'd ordered her to bed and it would probably worry her that Willow was still up.

The problem was that Willow had something very important to tell her, world changing important.

"Tara?" She asked in the tiniest whisper having promised herself that if the blonde didn't wake up she'd wait to tell her till the morning.

"Will, what is it?" Tara's blue eyes blinked open instantly.

"I thought you were asleep?" Willow checked chewing her lip.

"I was." She blinked a little more. "But I thought you'd call me."

"I did… I… I didn't want to wake you but I needed to tell you something." Willow chewed her lip harder. "I did some research online."

"Will." Tara whined slightly. "You're supposed to be sleeping; did you even take your pill?" She cocked her head a little to the side.

"No, I didn't need it, I'm okay… I was researching for Madalene." Willow said softly trying to explain.

"Always the research girl eh?" Tara smiled a little more. "So what did you find out?" She shuffled up the bed a little to sit up.

"I… I… I did lots of checking, the papers, the local bureau of statistics and such, even did a little snoopy snoopy in the local police files…" Willow tried to show her all the ways she'd tried to check on things. "No one by the name of Sarah Cutter is listed as deceased, or is she listed in any of the official reports on who died in the crash." She said the last part quickly.

"No, I know." Tara smiled tenderly at her lover very proud of what the hacker had achieved. "Didn't I tell you, Mads checked the papers online, there were some bodies that couldn't be identified?"

"I know, I matched the article to the police stuff. Captain Parks made a last entry in the file before it was closed with a list of the 17 of the 23 people on the bus who had died; the name of the dead trucker and the fact that there were 2 unidentified bodies from the bus and 1 from the truck. I checked the coroner's reports Tara, they didn't know who they were but the two from the bus were both males as was the one in the truck. They guess he was a hitchhiker and the people on the bus had sneaked on. Apparently it's common." She offered. "Sarah doesn't show up anywhere."

"They were boys?" Tara's voice was a whisper.

"The bodies were burned beyond recognition, I don't think they did DNA, but post mortem showed boys." She nodded. "And Tara I know Madalene checked the local office with your help it looked like in the history, but I checked the hacker way. There is no entry for Sarah Cutter as deceased."

Tara took a long breath but didn't say anything. She looked between Willow and the door to their room and then back at Willow.

"We don't tell her." Tara said very quietly.

"I knew you'd know what was best." Willow nodded. "I mean, how would we tell her?" She asked chewing on her lip. "Nothing is for sure, she could have died after the crash, and no one lists her."

"Been in a coma, died several months later, we just don't know." Tara shook her head. "This is as much of a curse as it is a promise." She admitted sadly.

"She has to go home though, to find out for sure. She can do that there, talking to people." Willow put forward.

"Especially if you found out exactly who dealt with the crash and was involved in the investigation, she could probably try and get to see them, talk with them maybe." Tara offered the idea.

"Definitely, they could tell her right away." Willow nodded. "I can get all of that, directions, even book flights." She wanted to know how far Tara wanted her to go.

"I think you're definitely the person to do all of that." Tara smiled at her lover. "Tomorrow." She added with a loving grin.

"Okay." Willow nodded. "I'm glad that we didn't have to go through this." She moved over and hugged the blonde.

"Me too. Though I would have to find you." Tara kissed soft red hair.

"What if she is alive?" Willow put the unbelievable idea out in the open.

"That's up to them." Tara said quietly. "A lot has changed."

"I hope she knows that when she's finished looking, she can always come back here." Willow said with a yawn.

"We're not letting her go if she doesn't." Tara chuckled. "Come on now you, its bedtime."

"Okay, I love you." Willow snuggled closer and closed her eyes feeling suddenly very tired.

"I love you too Super Hacker." Tara kissed her again.

"It's four o'clock in the morning, I'm uncomfortable and your car smells bad." Anya pouted and shifted uncomfortably in the passenger seat of Xander's car.

Xander's response was a soft snore.

"I believe he's been asleep for at least an hour." Giles said from the back seat having joined them after Buffy's instruction to watch Tara till she got there. He had a crossbow beside him out of habit. "And yes it is uncomfortable, hopefully it won't be too much longer till Buffy is back."

"I feel I have to tell you." Anya said glancing back at him. "That the organization you work for is indeed evil. I don't suppose you could give me details on all of the head people. D'Hoffryn would probably pay me well."

"Anya I am not giving you names to put on your bounty list." Giles huffed at her. "And you calling something evil is very funny."

"Oh don't think you can ever do the holier than thou you're a demon line anymore." Anya shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh no Mr. Proper Englishman who works for a company that kidnaps innocent girls and drags them across half the world to clinically dissect them."

"Anya that is quite enough!" Giles snapped at her and startled Xander out of his sleep.

"What? Where are they?" Xander grabbed the steering wheel trying to wake up all of his senses.

"Giles is getting tetchy. Just because I called the organization he works for worse than demonic." Anya huffed.

"Oh thank God, I think that must be Buffy." Giles looked to see another car boldly come into view with a blonde in the passenger seat. "Yes she's waving." He pulled open his door. "Always a pleasure to share time with you Anya." He sneered at the demon.

The dog on the bed made a sudden shudder and then leapt down to the ground and toddled off out of the room and down the hall.

"Midnight?" Willow questioned having been woken up by the movement.

"She's probably hungry." Tara yawned. "I'll go." She glanced at the clock. "It's nearly her breakfast time; I'll go down and see if a few treaties will by us another half and hour or so."

"Okay." Willow snuggled into the warm duvet that Tara left as she got up.

The blonde pulled on her light ankle length silk robe and moved downstairs to find the Slayer in the front hallway hanging up her jacket.

"You should be asleep it's late." Buffy said softly at the blonde seeing how indeed tired she looked. She reached down and rubbed the dog that had appeared at her feet happy to see her.

"Your baby woke me." Tara smiled at both the Slayer and the dog. "I was hoping rubies and a couple of begging strips would buy us all an hour or so more sleep."

"Too early for those, needs an ear rub eh darling?" Buffy began to rub the dogs ears and it nuzzled further into her.

"She missed you." Tara admitted easily. "And I think we owe the Wilkinson's a hedge plant or two."

"Bad Midnight." Buffy chastised her but kept rubbing. "How's everyone?" She asked looked up at Tara.

"Hanging in." Tara gave the honest reply. "Though now that you're back I expect a sudden improvement. Did you do everything you needed too?"

"The dogs are dead, no clue where Spike is but he's not killing people I know that for sure so it helps." Buffy said honestly.

"I think we have all got a lot to talk about, talk being the operative word. There have been too many raised voices and angry words spoken recently." Tara said without malice or blame.

"That would probably be the best idea, there are a few things I need to talk to you and Madalene about especially." Buffy said honestly. "That's why I didn't keep looking for Spike."

"I'm sure there are ways we can do our best to try to track him." Tara offered a reasonable sounding compromise.

"Last I can guess he's vaguely headed to L.A., I'll let Angel know to keep an eye out for him but if I need any trackers we can try anything you got then." She smiled at the blonde. "It's late though, Will's going to miss you, why don't we talk in the morning?"

"I don't mind talking as long as we all promise to listen, as well as talk." Tara softly let the Slayer know that though her temper had cooled her resolve wasn't any less real.

"I don't mind listening as long as people realize I listen sometimes but then still decide it has to go my way, especially when it comes to the dangerous stuff." Buffy said equally without angry but with some amount of resolve.

"Duly noted." Tara gave a nod. "Good night Buffy."

The Slayer waited until she was almost to the top of the stairs.

"Why didn't you tell me it wasn't you? When I accused you of letting him go, you didn't say it wasn't you, why take the heat for it?" Buffy asked not able to let the opportunity go.

"Because you didn't care who it was." Tara pointed out softly. "You looked around and all you saw were people you didn't know or at least didn't recognize. One of us had to be the bad guy, and I footed the bill." The blonde gave a soft roll of her shoulders. "Sometimes Buffy it's not action so much as ones reaction to them."

"She shouldn't have let him go. I know now all of this is a big strange convenient group of events, but it could have been Spike that killed people. She didn't think about that." Buffy said with some judgement in her voice. "I've had to waste the last two and a half days running after Spike and these demons and the half dozen side problems I found along the way when I should have been here protecting Willow and you."

"Buffy, if we'd have woken up two weeks ago before Spike, before any of this and the first thing we saw on the news was that a family had been ripped apart during the night by unknown assailants what would you have done?" Tara questioned.

"Checked it out, made sure it wasn't demon." The Slayer said knowing it was the truth. "Got Will to hack the database at the cop shop."

"And what if that search suggested it was demon?" Tara questioned further. 

"I'd have gone to kill it." Buffy said knowing she'd been led to this answer.

"Yes you would have." Tara nodded. "Because you're the best slayer this world has known and your heart is always striving to be in the right, maybe what Madalene did was wrong, but to her heart and mind it wasn't. It was her way of stopping the people she cared about being torn apart."

"Well you might not remember but everyone gets a couple of free screw ups when they're a Scooby." Buffy looked at the blonde feeling about three inches tall as she listened to the very honest comparative. "This one will have to be her learning curve; don't let prisoners go without Slayer approval."

"Can we have a learning curve that says we try and minimize the number of prisoners we keep in our garage?" Tara gave a quirky smile.

"Okay minimal prisoners, but the ones we do have no one lets go but me, agreed?" Buffy smiled back at her slightly.

"I think that is a very reasonable compromise." Tara nodded and was about to backtrack up the stairs when she stopped. "Buffy, so this isn't a complete surprise tomorrow when it gets mentioned. Madalene is probably leaving."

"What?" The fact came as a complete shock to the Slayer. "Look I know I freaked out about the Spike thing, but I'll talk to her about the low prisoners no release agreement. It'll be okay." She instantly offered a solution.

"Buffy, this is not to do with you, or the garage." Tara shook her head and smiled trying to release a little of the Slayer's guilt. "It's totally about her."

"But I thought… she liked it here." Buffy said forgetting herself for a moment as her genuine hurt at the idea showed.

"Oh Buffy she does." Tara shook her head to the idea that Buffy would think anything but that. "She's been having a lot of dreams, visions." Tara explained a little more. "About things, the past…"

"About Sarah." Buffy filled in the obvious huge deal about them.

"Yes." Tara nodded. "To start again with anything, she has to know what it is that she has lost." Tara explained gently. "If indeed it is lost." She made the rather cryptic explanation.

Buffy was thinking about what Madalene was leaving meant when her thoughts were sidetracked by Tara's last words.

"What to do you mean if it's lost?" Buffy moved to the stairs and walked up a few.

"There's a chance…" Tara stopped. "Willow did some looking online, she couldn't find a record of Sarah's death."

"You mean she might be alive?" Buffy moved up a few more stairs her face showing her disbelief. "But… Madalene… does she know?"

Tara shook her head.

"Willow only did the research tonight. She told me a few hours ago." Tara explained the situation as it stood.

"But there has to be a record if she's dead, if she's not dead… Mads can be happy." Buffy said the last bit in a whisper.

"Maybe." Tara nodded. "Maybe not. Things have changed, they've both changed."

"I heard the way Madalene talked about her during her vision, that's like you and Willow, that kinda love doesn't change." Buffy shook her head. "We have to tell her, get her to go find her."

"I hadn't planned on doing that." Tara admitted. "I hadn't planned on telling her at all."

"But… oh I understand, in case, she is dead and the records are wrong.' Buffy nodded that she understood. "I can't believe how crazy it would be for her if she found out Sarah was alive." She was honest.

"I'm not sure crazy covers it." Tara admitted. "And yes, I thought it was best for Mads to go home without any kind of expectation, you know?"

"Yeah… I guess, there's a chance she won't come back." Buffy's face fell for the first time in Tara's view for a brief second before she headed back down the stairs. "I'm going to get a drink, you or Will need anything?"

"No." Tara shook her head.

"I'll poke my head in and let Dawn know I'm home." Buffy called to her as she headed towards the kitchen.

"I know she'll appreciate that." Tara smiled and nodded. "Goodnight Buffy." She bid the Slayer softly. "It's good to have you home."

The End for Now… Grrrr... Arrgggg


End file.
